Retrospective Clinical Investigation of the Impact of Early Treatment of Children with Down's Syndrome According to Castillo-Morales

Abstract

Early treatment using a stimulation plate thus appears to mitigate or even normalize the initially more severe dysfunctions recorded in the study group as compared to the controls.

Rehabilitation of the Orofacial Complex by Means of a Stimulating Plate in Children with Down Syndrome

“…It was observed that the reaction to inserting the plate was the strongest in the early months of treatment; this was reported by the parents of children with Down syndrome in the current study, but has also been mentioned by other authors [17,23]. Good plate adaptation in the youngest children was observed by Schuster and Giese [16], who used photographic documentation and questionnaires to assess the effects of stimulating plate treatment as part of Castillo-Morales therapy implemented in the early stages of development of children with Down syndrome. In older children becoming discouraged with the palatal plate may be connected with the eruption of teeth, which was also observed by Bäckman et al [24].…”

“…It comprises multidisciplinary medical care provided by pediatricians, geneticists, neurologists, psychologists, speech therapists and, more and more frequently, orthodontists as well. Regardless of the difficulty involved in assessing changes in mimetic muscle tension, tongue position and lip closure during and after palatal plate therapy, visual assessment remains one of the most important methods of assessing the progress of orofacial rehabilitation through the use of a palatal plate [12,16]. Carlstedt et al [17,18] used video recordings to assess the progress of rehabilitation.…”

Orofacial Development in Children with Down?s Syndrome 12 Years after Early Intervention with a Stimulating Plate

“…cial function." The present follow-up study takes up Carlstedt's concerns in that the follow-up period of more than 12 years offers a greater predictive potential with respect to long-term stability than other studies [5,8,9,16,21,32] with a shorter follow-up period.…”

“…Supported by motivated physiotherapists and driven by intensified suffering-induced pressure, parents of children with a pronounced dysfunction tend to display more intensive compliance [32].…”

“…Carlstedt et al [5] empfehlen eine eingeschränkte Interpretation von Studienergebnissen direkt nach Therapieabschluss, da "ein 1-jähriger Beobachtungszeitraum zu kurz ist, um definitive Konsequenzen bezüglich der Langzeitstabilität der verbesserten orofazialen Situation zu ziehen". In der vorliegenden Nachuntersuchung wird auf die Bedenken von Carlstedt insofern eingegangen, als der Beobachtungszeitraum von über 12 Jahren im Vergleich zu anderen publizierten Studien [5,8,9,16,21,32] mit einem kürzeren Nachuntersuchungszeitraum eine größere Aussagekraft bezüglich der Langzeitstabilität ermöglicht.…”