The Impact of Palatal Augmentation Prosthesis on Pharyngeal Swallowing in Healthy Subjects

Abstract

Purpose: The palatal augmentation prosthesis (PAP) allows reshaping of the hard palate to improve tongue/palate contact during speech and swallowing for patients with restricted tongue mobility as a result of surgery, trauma or neurologic/motor deficit. A recent study suggested that insertion of the PAP not only increases tongue contact to the palate but also provides better pharyngeal swallowing, but little is known about the physiological changes with the PAP. This study examined, by manofluorographic evaluation, the impact of inserting a PAP on pharyngeal swallowing among healthy subjects.

Methods: Manofluorography was performed for 5 healthy subjects (4 males and 1 female, age 24–32 years) with and without the PAP. All subjects were instructed to swallow a spoonful of barium-containing jelly 3 times under each condition. The PAP was adjusted to make the anterior part of the hard palate bulge. We evaluated the following parameters: bolus flow, oral and pharyngeal manometric pressures and duration of pharyngeal events.

Results: Insertion of the PAP significantly increased the peak pressure at the base of the tongue (77.1 mmHg without the PAP, 97.3 mmHg with the PAP) and tended to increase the oropharyngeal bolus velocity.

Conclusion: This study suggested that the PAP, which provides adequate tongue contact to anchor the tongue tip, enhances the pharyngeal pressure and dynamics of pharyngeal events. The PAP is thus useful for pharyngeal dysfunctions.