Palatography and myo-functional therapy.

The purpose of this article is to report on the use of a rather simple method of palatography to supplement clinical inspection in the evaluation of swallowing patterns. This method allows inspection of contact zones made by the tongue against the palatal and dental structures during deglutition. The procedures of direct palatography used in this study were simple, inexpensive, and graphically revealed differences between normal swallowing and tongue thrust swallowing patterns in a manner consistent with clinical evaluation expectancies. These data reveal that direct palatography can be used clinically to support the myo-functional clinician in establishing an accurate evaluation of tongue thrust. Direct palatography also constitutes a graphic record of contact zones between the tongue and the dental-palatal structures during swallowing. [article excerpts]