RADIOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION OF DEFECTIVE SPEECH STILL PALATOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTIONThe Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu is relatively new and its Department of Diagnostic Radiology has a history of about five and a half years.The purpose of this paper is to present the practical aspect of the radiographic technique used for assessment of speech difficulties encountered mostly by patients with cleft palate deformities.In the oropharynx the soft palate hangs down at rest, from the posterior edge of the hard palate. Between the soft palate and the posterior pharyngeal wall is the palatopharyngeal isthmus which connects the oropharynx with the nasopharynx. During active oral speech, the soft palate closes off this isthmus by its upward movement impinging with its lavator eminence on the contracting posterior pharyngeal wall usually just above the level of the arch of the atlas.To achieve this competent sphincteric action in a normal cerebrate individual the whole palate must be intact, the soft palate mobile and of adequate length in relation to the pharyngeal cavity. Defective speech will therefore occur in a normal cerebrate person if the hard or soft palate is cleft, the soft palate paralysed or the pharynx too roomy. Of all these the commonest condition we have dealt with in our plastic Surgical Service is the cleft palate. We have used lateral X-ray palatographs now for four years to investigate velo-pharyngeal competence in these cases.