[Effects of Le-Fort-I-Osteotomy on nasalance scores].

BACKGROUND

Nasalance represents a measure of the relative amount of oral and nasal acoustic energy produced by a speaker. Literature shows changes in nasalance after surgery of the oropharynx. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the outcome of speech and nasalance scores after Le-Fort-I-Osteotomy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A total of 20 individuals with normal speech development were examined preoperatively and 6 weeks postoperatively with the Nasometer 6200 (Kay-Elemetrics, USA) after bimaxillary surgery. The tone materials used comprised the standardized text passage: "Ein Kindergeburtstag", the vowels: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and a syllable repetition subtest.

RESULTS

All patients showed changes in nasalance scores 6 weeks postoperatively. There were no significant changes reading the standard text. The syllable repetition test showed significant changes for repetition of "ma ma ma" and "na na na" (p=0,003, respectively p=0,033). Intonation of the vowel /a/1 also revealed significant changes regarding the pre- and postoperative values (p=0,006). However, the obtained values had no significant impact on the nasality characteristics of speech.

CONCLUSION

This study confirms that maxillary osteotomies can result in significant changes of nasalance scores. However these changes do not have any impact on normal speech and voice.