Phonetic contouring of polished surface of denture base for speech enhancement

Abstract

The three main factors in complete denture construction are mechanics, esthetics, and phonetics. Out of which phonetics is generally given least importance as the tongue tends to adapt and patients tend to return to normal speech after a post insertion practice period of several weeks to several months. This may not be acceptable to certain group of people in accordance with their needs to speak socially or vocationally. An accurate approximation of palatal contours of a maxillary complete denture to patient’s tongue can improve intelligibility and decrease the post- insertion practice period. This article outlines a technique to replicate the patient’s palatal anatomy onto the polished palatal surface of a complete denture.