Inference to Tongue Pressure during Swallowing by Wearing Palatal Plate

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Objectives : Prosthodontic treatments by large sized maxillary denture base extensively cover the palatal mucosa where mechanoreceptors are densely distributed. Covering the palatal mucosa with a denture base causes physiological and functional hindrances such as unpleasantness, gag reflex and poor recognition of the tongue. The aim of this study was to clarify inference of tongue pressure during swallowing by wearing palatal plate.Methods : Twenty one subjects (12 males and 9 females, mean age;25 years, age range;22-29 years) were investigated. All subjects gave their written informed consent to participate in this study prior to the experiments.Subjects were asked to sit upright in a dental chair in order to measure the maximum voluntary tongue pressure and the tongue pressure during swallowing were measured based on the method described by Hayashi et al. These pressures were recorded three times under two conditions : palatal mucosa completely covered using an experimental palatal plate and uncovered. For the maximum voluntary tongue pressure recordings, the subjects were instructed to compress a specially designed small balloon between the tongue and the anterior part of the hard palate for 7 seconds with their maximum voluntary tongue effort. To record tongue pressure during swallowing, the subjects were instructed to swallow 5 ml of gelatin drink, as naturally as possible with the balloon pre-placed between the tongue and the anterior part of the palate, and the peak value of tongue pressure during swallowing was recorded. Differences obtained were compared by using the paired-sample t-test (p<0.05).Results : When the results of maximum voluntary tongue pressure and the tongue pressure during swallowing were compared between the two conditions, significant difference wasn't observed.Conclusion : The maximum voluntary tongue pressure and the tongue pressure during swallowing didn't have influence, when the hard palate was covered by a palatal plate.