Prosthetic Rehabilitation for Speech and Swallowing (PReSS): a novel, interdisciplinary approach to head and neck cancer survivorship

Purpose of review There are numerous physical, psychosocial, and functional morbidities following glossectomy, particularly impacting speech and swallowing. The lack of systematic rehabilitation programs, including a shortage of clinical rehabilitation and outcomes assessments, limited provider/resource access, and limited collaborative expertise within the interdisciplinary team, may contribute to the perceived hesitation regarding surgical intervention from providers and patients. Prosthetic rehabilitation involving intraoral devices may be beneficial to restore speech and swallowing function after head and neck cancer. Recent findings An interdisciplinary approach between speech pathologists and restorative dentists for designing and fabricating intraoral speech prostheses is presented. The P rosthetic Re habilitation for S peech and S wallowing (PReSS) framework includes three distinct phases: Summary This publication outlines the interdisciplinary methodology for designing and fabricating intraoral prosthetics and offers a structured prosthetic program following head and neck cancer treatment. Adopting the PreSS framework may improve speech and swallowing outcomes, improving patients’ quality of life after head and neck cancer treatment.