Velopharyngeal dysfunction: speech characteristics, variable etiologies, evaluation techniques, and differential treatments.

This tutorial addresses the complex pathophysiology; various structural and neurologic causes; methods of clinical appraisal; and alternative behavioral prosthetic, and medicosurgical treatments of velopharyngeal dysfunction. To balance the primary focus of this review on hypernasal resonance and articulation disorders, discussions concerning hyponasal speech characteristics and underlying etiologies are also rendered.