THE ELIMINATION OF SPEECH DEFECT IN CHILDREN WITH DENTOFACIAL ANOMALIES

Abstract

The article highlights the problem of speech function disorders in children due to existing dentofacial anomalies and their corrections. Data from the Ukrainian scientific and practical community indicate an increasing number of patients with anomalies and deformations of the dentofacial apparatus who require orthodontic correction. Speech disorders development hasn’t the single cause and can be caused by a lot of etiological factors. However, the leading one remains a shortened tongue frenulum. Despite today's significant progress in performing tongue frenotomy, it is not always possible to achieve the desired result in improving the sound pronunciation of patients. Therefore, improving the methodological approach to the correction of sound pronunciation does not lose its relevance. The aim. The elimination of speech defect methods development by performing frenotomy in children with dentofacial anomalies and evaluating treatment effectiveness. Materials and Methods. A prospective controlled study conducted by us included 28 children (7 to 11 years old) with limited tongue mobility of 50–80%, who were randomly divided into 2 groups (experimental and control). All patients underwent frenotomy, in addition to which (and postoperative rehabilitation) patients in the experimental group were offered several myofunctional exercises. Results. According to the research results in the current research, corrective treatment results, 81.25% of patients showed a significant improvement in sound pronunciation in the experimental group (vs 25% in the control). An insignificant result was recorded in 18.75% of patients in the experimental group vs 33.33% of patients in the control. In 41.67% of the control patients, no improvement in sound pronunciation was found. Conclusion. The combined use of frenotomy (according to indications) and myofunctional exercises complex allows for significant improvement in the result of orthodontic correction.