[Study of tongue pressure on the hard palate during exercises of swallowing rehabilitation].

INTRODUCTION

The exercises performed during the reeducation of swallowing seek to improve forces of propulsion of the bolus and airway protection during the course of swallowing. The objective of this study was to objectify the effect of pronunciation praxis of posterior phonemes /aka/ and /akra/, and swallowing maneuvers (super-supraglottic swallow with or without superimposed effort swallowing effort) on the time of the oral swallowing.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Four healthy volunteers participated in the experiment. They are called "experts" because they have a good knowledge of physiology and rehabilitation of swallowing. The dynamic palatography setup measured continuously the different pressures from the tongue on the hard palate through three force sensors arranged in a sagittal plane during the implementation of articulatory and swallowing tasks.

RESULTS

Articulatory praxis created significant pressure on the posterior sensor for 2 of the 4 subjects. All the swallowing maneuvers increased the contact pressure and the contact duration compared to the control swallowing for the anterior and posterior pressure sensor. A large inter-individual variability was found.

CONCLUSION

The complexity of instruction, the inter-individual variability in their performance, and the non-invasive nature of the instrument make the dynamic palatography a potentially useful tool in routine practice of swallowing reeducation.