• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.721-728
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• 2004

Velopharyngeal closure is a sphincter mechanism between the activities of the soft palate, lateral pharyngeal wall and the posterior pharyngeal wall, which divides the oral and nasal cavity. It participates in physiological activities such as swallowing, breathing and speech. It is called a velopharyngeal dysfunction when this mechanism malfunctions. The causes of this dysfunction are defects in (1) length, function, posture of the soft palate, (2) depth and width of the nasopharynx and (3) activity of the posterior and lateral pharyngeal wall. The purposes of this study are to analyze the nasopharynx of cleft palate patients using cephalometry and to evaluate the degree of hypernasality using nasometry to find its relationship with velopharyngeal dysfunction. The following results were obtained : 1. In cephalometry, there were significant differences in soft palate length, soft palate thickness, nasopharyngeal depth, nasopharyngeal area, and adequate ratio between two groups. 2. In nasometry, there were significant differences between two groups in vowel /o/ and sentences including oral consonants. 3. In cleft palate patients, though no general correlation was found between Anatomic VPI and nasalance scores, vowel /i/ and sentences including oral consonants were slightly correlated. In conclusion, cephalometry and nasometer results were significantly different between the two groups. Though in the cleft palate group, Anatomic VPI and nasalance scores, which are indices for velopharyngeal closure, excluding the vowel /i/ and sentences including oral consonants show generally no significance.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.294-300
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• 2011

This study was performed to examine the presence of dysphagia and analyze characteristics of the symptoms in cerebrovascular accident(CVA) patients without awareness of dysphagia. A questionnaire for this study was given to CVA patients who had visited P rehabilitation medical center in Busan. Eleven patients (4 males and 7 females) who answered no awareness of dysphasia were given to VFSS, functional dysphasia scale, and NCSE. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were performed by SPSS 12.0. All of subjects without awareness of dysphasia showed characteristics of dysphasia symptoms. Prominent dysfunctions were problems in oral phase and delay of swallowing reflex in pharyngeal phase. For the aspect of cognition, they showed lower score in construction, memory, and similarity than other NCSE items. There was highly significant correlation between orientation, judgment and delay of swallowing reflex. Verbal comprehension and residual materials in oral cavity showed closed correlation. CVA patients without awareness had dysphagia with high probability. The early evaluation of dysphagia should be performed in CVA patients in order to prevent complications due to CVA, so it is necessary to increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation therapy.