Palatal lifting prosthesis and velopharyngeal insufficiency: Preliminary report

Objectives. Our study aimed to highlight the effectiveness of palatal lift prosthesis in patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency with previous operated cleft palate. Methods. This study was done undertaken January 2008 to December of 2009 in the Phoniatic unit of Alnoor Specialist Hospital, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Ten patients of ≥ 8 years to ≤ 10 years of age, who had previously undergone surgery for cleft palate, with or without cleft lip, with no other systemic illness and normal intelligent quotient level, were selected and managed by palatal lift prosthesis. All the study subjects were subjected to auditory perceptual speech evaluation for assessment of the degree of hypernasality, compensatory articulator mechanisms, glottal and pharyngeal articulation, audible nasal emission, facial grimace and overall intelligibility of speech. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results. The study included 10 subjects whose mean ± standard deviation of age was (8.9±0.9). On auditory speech perceptual evaluation after prosthesis application, significant improvement was found in glottal articulation 6 (85.7%), p=0.04, facial grimace 6 (85.7%) p=0.04, hyper nasality 10 (10%) p=0.008, and speech intelligibility 9 (90%) p=0.008. Conclusion. Young patients with repaired palatal cleft have significant improvement after application of palatal lift prosthesis.