Assessment of speech production with dentures by electromagnetic articulography

This report investigates the use of electromagnetic articulography (EMA) to compare basic speech patterns between a patient with traditional dentures to those of a normally dentate person. The goal is to assess the efficacy of traditional dentures in order to generate clinical data and works towards the improvement of denture design. Kinematic and acoustic data were acquired for these two subjects using a variety of repetitive vowel-consonant-vowel tasks. Spatiotemporal parameters indicating dynamic properties of the tongue blade and jaw movements, and timing coordination of the movements between them and with the output acoustic signal, were measured and compared within and between the participants. The results show significant differences in both spatial and temporal patterns and variation between individual tasks within each subject's data, as well as a difference in the two subjects' performance of the same task (cross-subject) for select calculated kinematic and latency parameters. It is concluded that there is more variation in spatiotemporal parameters in speech patterns for patients with dentures than without; in particular, latencies of the tongue blade and jaw movements and acoustic landmarks of the consonants, show strategies of movements timing coordination, typical of the speaker with denture.