RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NASOPHARYNGEAL SPACE AND VELOPHARYNGEAL INCOMPETENCE IN CLEFT PALATE

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Journal of the Korean Academy of Pediatric Dentistry 2000;27(4):517-523.
Published online November 30, 2000.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NASOPHARYNGEAL SPACE AND VELOPHARYNGEAL INCOMPETENCE IN CLEFT PALATE

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구개열환자에서 비인두공간과 비인강폐쇄부전과의 연관성

조준희¹, 최병재¹, 심현섭², 손흥규¹

¹연세대학교 치과대학 소아치과학교실
²이화여자대학교 특수교육학과 언어병리학 협동과정

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal closure is a sphincter mechanism between the activities of the soft palate, lateral pharyngeal wall and the posterior pharyngeal wall, which divides the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. It participates in physiological activities such as swallowing, breathing and pronunciation. In case of an error in this mechanism, it is called a nasopharyngeal incompetence. The causes of this error are defects in (1) length, function, posture of the soft palate (2) depth and width of the nasopharynx, (3) activity of the posterior and lateral pharyngeal wall. The purpose of this study is to analyze the nasopharynx of cleft palate patients using lateral cephalograms and at the same time, evaluate the degree of hypernasality of each vowels to find its relationship with nasopharyngeal incompetence. The following results were obtained: 1. The length of the soft palate was markedly short than normal. 2. The adequate ratio was smaller than the normal value. 3. As the adequate ratio decreased, when articulating vowels, anatomic mVPI increased. 4. When articulating each vowels, anatomic VPI was in proportion with the degree of hypernasality. 5. The degree of hypernasality was greater in high vowels(/i/, /u/) than low vowel(/a/). From the above results, it can be concluded that in cleft palate patients, lateral cephalograms can be used effectively in diagnosing and evaluating nasopharyngeal incompetence. The anatomic structure of the nasopharynx has close relation to the degree of hypernasality.

Key Words: Velopharyngeal Incompetence, Nasopharyngeal space, Lateral cephalogram, Hypernasality, Cleft palate