[Speech and prostheses for congenital cleft palate patients in adulthood]

The surgical treatment should be preferred for cleft palate patients in childhood. However, a prosthesis is favorable for some adult patients. The construction of prostheses are rather complicated for patients who require pharyngeal speech aid in addition to anterior prosthesis. Sound prosthodontic rules are valid in designing a speech aid prostheses. Often stability and retention increase is required for these prostheses. Furthermore, the velar and the pharyngeal sections should not interfere with the muscular activity of pharynx and/or tongue movements during speech and deglutition. This article describes the prosthodontic habilitation of congenital cleft palate patients by means of pharyngeal speech aid prosthesis.