The Comparative Study of Effect on Speech before and after Orthognathic Surgery of Patients

Kwon, Hwan Kyung; Kim, Soo Nam; Lee, Dong Keun; Cho, Yong Min; Lee, Suk Hyang

Abstract

The purpose of this study was undertaken to determine the effects of orthognathic surgery on speech. The hyposis stated herein is that functional behaviors of the dentofacial complex, such as speech production, may be adversely affected by deviations of a structural nature(especially, Class III malocclusion). Twenty adults with Class III malocclusion(13 female and 7 male) were studied preoperative, immediate postoperative and either 6 or 12 months postoperative lateral cephalograms. They had mandibular prognathism and had undergone mandible setback operation. The position of tongue, soft palate(Uvula), hyoid bone, respiratory track width, and pharyngeal depth were assessed on lateral cephalograms with 23 cephalometric variables. ANOVA, Paired t-tests and Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient tests were used to evalute the operative changes in all cephalometric parameters. A experienced speech and language pathologists performed narrow phonetic transcriptions of tape-recorded words and sentences produced by each of the ninth patients and the recording tapes were analyzed by phonetic computer program(Computerized Speech Lab(CSL) Model 4300BI(U.S.A.)) These judges also recorded their ratings of each patient's overall consonants, hypernasality, hyponasality, and articulation proficiency. The results obtained are as follows; 1. There were significant changes in distance of posterior pharyngeal wall to tongue (TI-TW2, TS-TW3) after the surgery at 6 months postoperatively(each p<0.01 p<0.05). 2. The posterior tongue point(TI, TS, PPT) moved posteriorly after surgery and remained to its changed position at 6 months postoperatively(p<0.05). The displacement of tongue was correlated with the movement of mandibular setback amount(p<0.05). The hyoid bone moved posteriorly superiorly after immediate postoperative period. There was significant changes in hyoid bone movement after immediated postoperative period(p<0.05), but returned to its original position during the follow-up period(p>0.05). 3. The soft palate was displaced posteriorly superiorly after immediated operative period and remained to its changed position at 6 months postoperatively(p<0.05). ANS-PNS-SPT angle increasing, PPU-PPPo distance narrowing was showed after surgery, and remained its appearance 6 months postoperatively(p<0.05). 4. There were significant changes in formant value and squre diagram of vowel sound after the orthognathic surgery and the follow-up period. There were significant changes in /sound and posterior tongue sound. 5. The posterior movement of tongue and the posteriosuperior movement of soft palate was correlated with mandibular setback amount after orthognathic surgery. On the vowel squre diagram, the author found that the place of articulation after operation moved downward, backward, upward. 6. In assessing speech abnormalities, dental occlusion should be considered as a contributing factor. The vast majority of subjects with preoperative misarticulations eliminated or reduced their errors following orthognathic surgery. There was significant difference in speech impovement between pre- and post-operation.