Application of Tongue Pressure Measurement to Rehabilitation of Dysphagic Patients with Prosthesis

Abstract

Tongue plays an important role by making contact with palate in swallowing. This study was aimed for investigating the utility of originally developed measuring system of tongue pressure in the rehabilitation of dysphagic patients with prosthesis. Subject was a 68 years old male post-surgical laryngeal cancer patient who underwent percutaneus endoscopic gastrostomy because of dysphagia. Tongue pressure during dry swallow was recorded by using our original sensor sheet system (Nitta, Japan) with five measuring points (Chs.1-5) attached on the palatal surface of maxillary denture (RPD). Tongue impression was taken by his maxillary denture and the palatal contour was changed into palatal augmentation prosthesis (PAP), then tongue pressure with PAP was recorded and compared with that with RPD. Magnitude of tongue pressure on median line (CHs.1-3) of palatal surface of RPD was nearly 0 and that on the circumferential part (Chs.4 and 5) had laterality. In PAP, however, magnitude of tongue pressure on the median line increased and showed normal pattern (Ch.1>Ch.2>Ch.3) and that on the circumferential part showed no laterality. Improvement of the tongue pressure production described by our system might contribute to the bolus transport in oral phase of swallowing.