Prosthetic management of soft palate cleft--a case report

The treatment of cleft in the soft palate can be achieved essentially by surgical reconstruction or prosthetic obturation. The goals of prosthetic intervention are to prevent food and liquid leakage into the nose and to improve speech intelligibility by ensuring functional velopharyngeal port closure. In this report, the prosthetic management of a 5-year-old child with soft palatal cleft is presented. The impression of the cleft was taken with tissue conditioner, Visco -gel, TM (De Trey, Amalgamated Dental London) and the pharyngeal obturator (speech bulb) was made in clear acrylic resin. Patient tolerated the appliance well and was referred to speech therapist for speech articulation.