Abstract:Objective: To investigate the effect of palatal lift prosthesis (PLP) on the curative effect and nasal flow of patients with dysarthria. Methods: From April 2020 to January 2021, 18 patients (15 males and 3 females) with dysarthria and severe velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) who underwent language training in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital were included in the study, aged from 16 to 59, with an average age of 38.0 years old. The PLP group received PLP and rehabil-itation training (excluding training to overcome nasalization) , and the pure training group only received rehabilitation training, with a treatment course of 20 days. The two groups of patients underwent velopharyngeal lateral X-rays (photostatic and phonation/i/audiovisual each) measurement, and nasal flow tester to test the nasal flow, to determine the longest vocalization time, the speed of vocal rotation and the speech clarity. Results: In patients with dysarthria and severe VPI, the soft palate movement angle decreased, and the relative VPI rate increased. In the PLP group, the angle of movement of the soft palate was significantly increased compared to before treatment. The shortest distance between the soft palate and the posterior pharyngeal wall and the relative VPI rate were significantly reduced compared with before, the nasal flow was significantly reduced, the longest vocalization time was significantly prolonged, and the pronunciation was alternated. Movement speed was significantly increased, speech clarity was significantly improved, and the above indicators improved more significantly after wearing PLP and undergoing the training. Conclusion: PLP is an effective method to improve nasalization in patients with dysarthria and severe VPI. It can also improve the patient's longest vocalization time, vocal rotation speed and speech clarity.
