Evaluation of articulation of Turkish phonemes after removable partial denture application

In this study, the adaptation of patients to removable partial dentures was evaluated related to articulation of Turkish phonemes. Articulation of /t,d.n,l,r/, /g,k/, /b,p,m/ and /s,z,ş,v,f,y,j,h,c/ phonemes were evaluated by three speech pathologists, on records taken from 15 patients before the insertion of a removable partial denture, just after insertion, and one week later. The test consisted of evaluation of phoneme articulation of independent syllables in terms of distortion, omission, substitution, mass effect, hypernasality and hyponasality. Data were evaluated with Cochrane Q. McNemar and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The results showed that for some phonemes, problems in articulation occurred after the insertion of a removable partial denture while for others a significant amelioration was observed after the insertion of a removable partial denture. In general, problems in articulation of evaluated phonemes were resolved after one week of use.