Morphological variety of the soft palate in normal individuals: a digital cephalometric study

Abstract

Introduction: Soft palate is a fibromuscular portion constituting the back of roof of the mouth which is essential for phonation, deglutition, respiration and velopharyngeal competence. Objective: To study various morphologies of soft palate, difference in proportion of each type and their differencesamong gender and agegroups in Nepalese sample. Materials & Method: Aretrospective study was conducted on patients seeking orthodontic treatment. 263 lateral cephalograms were classified on the basis of radiographic appearance. Analysis was done using SPSS (version 20.0). Pearson chi square and descriptive statistics were performed and level of significance was set at p<0.05. Result: In the order of occurrence; rat tail type of soft palate was most prevalent followed by leaf type, butt type, straightline, crooked type and S shaped. There was no significant difference between male and female subjects (p=0.338) and through age groups (p=0.998). Conclusion: The study highlights various types of soft palate present in Nepalese sample which will help as a reference for research pertaining to cleft palate/ velopharyngeal closure and in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome in Nepalese population.

Morphometric evaluation of soft palate in oral submucous fibrosis—A digital cephalometric study

“…Whereas Sshaped soft palate was not observed in the study group. Type 1 soft palate is the most common variety of soft palate seen in population [You et al, 2008]. These findings are in consistent with our finding.…”

“…Similar study was carried out in normal individuals by You et al (2008). To our knowledge this is the first study to evaluate the morphological changes of soft palate in oral submucous fibrosis using digital lateral cephalogram.…”

“…Superio-inferior dimension of soft palate was measured at the thickest area of soft palate. Morphology of soft palates was classified based on their morphology according to You et al (2008) as Types: 1 (leaf-shaped), 2 (rat-tail shaped), 3 (butt-like), 4 (straight line), 5 (S-shaped) and 6 (crookshaped) (Fig. 1).…”

Correlation of Types of Soft Palate, Body Mass Index and Apnoea Hypoapnoea Index in Patients with Sleep Apnoea: A Pilot Study

“…The variation of the soft palate morphology may be a new explanation for surgical failure and the soft palate may need to be repaired in various patterns. 3 Dentist and radiologist who observes the finding of hooked/ butt appearance of soft palate on lateral cephalogram should suspect the strong possibility of the presence of OSAS. …”

“…1, 2, 3,4 Pepin et al found the "hooked" appearance of the soft palate in awake patients, which indicated a high risk for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS). In general, most OSA patients seem to have a high body mass index (BMI) shows severe apnoea problems.…”