Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2025
Measuring the Complete-arch Distortion of an Optical Dental Impression
Published on: May 30, 2019
Articulation distortion in Mandarin-speaking individuals with complete arch maxillary implant-supported fixed dental
Yun Zhang1, Jie Liu2, Dedong Yu3
1Doctoral student, Department of 2nd Dental Center, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine; College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; National Center for Stomatology; National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology; Shanghai Research Institute of Stomatology, Shanghai, PR China.
Statement Of Problem:
Implant-supported fixed dental prostheses (IFPs) have been increasingly used to restore edentulous jaws, yet few studies have utilized acoustic analysis for objective evaluation of postrestoration speech outcomes.
Purpose:
The purpose of this clinical study was to assess speech articulation in edentulous individuals before and after the provision of IFPs by combining the results of subjective evaluations and objective acoustic analysis parameters.
Material And Methods:
The study included thirty-four individuals who had an edentulous maxilla and had been provided with an IFP for over 6 months, along with 6 dentate controls. Acoustic analysis was conducted, and mean opinion scores (MOS) were rated from recordings. The participants were interviewed about perceived speech changes. Changes in the parameters were evaluated using the paired t test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test (α=.05). A comparison between dentate controls and edentulous individuals (with or without prostheses) was made using an independent t test or Mann-Whitney U test (α=.025).
Results:
Following restoration, the center of gravity (CoG) changes occurred in 11 of 12 consonants in edentulous individuals (P<.05). Prosthesis use allowed the CoG of all affricates and fricatives to appear larger and closer to control values. Before restoration, the CoG of 9 of 12 consonants in edentulous individuals differed from controls (P<.01); after restoration, this reduced to 3 out of 12 (P<.01). MOS improved in 10 of 12 consonants (P<.01), nearing a score of 4. Despite restoration, the CoG of alveolo-palatals [tɕh], [tɕ], and [ɕ] remained different from controls (P<.01). Most participants were satisfied with the improvement, with few reporting discomfort with alveolars [s] and [tsh].
Conclusions:
IFPs can enhance speech in edentulous individuals, yet articulation distortions of alveolar and alveolo-palatal consonants persist. The improper palatal shape of IFPs or an abrupt joint between the IFP and atrophic natural bone may contribute to these distortions.
