Postoperative oral cancer patients, particularly tongue and oral floor cancer patients, suffer from dysphagia caused by deteriorated tongue-palate contact during swallowing. Although palatal augmentation prosthesis (PAP) can be provided in the rehabilitation of such patients, fabrication of the palatal contour of PAP is occasionally performed by the law learned by experience. In this case series study, state of tongue pressure production was evaluated as a quantitative measure in PAP fabrication by using our original tongue pressure sensor sheet system.
Methods:
Three oral cancer postoperative patients participated in this study as subjects (one woman, and two men, average age 64.7 years old). We fabricated PAP for three postoperative oral cancer patients using a sensor sheet system for monitoring tongue-palate contact at five measuring points during forming palatal contour. Objective and subjective outcome of PAP was evaluated by the comparison of tongue pressure during dry swallow and a visual analog scale (VAS) between with and without PAP respectively.
Results:
Duration and maximal magnitude of tongue pressure with PAP was larger than that without PAP at all measurement points. Recovery of tongue pressure production at anterior-median part of hard palate might improve bolus driving force by tongue-palate contact. VAS score for easiness of swallowing was also improved by wearing PAP.
Conclusions:
Measurement of tongue pressure by using sensor sheet system is effective for monitoring the state of tongue-palate contact during PAP fabrication as well as confirming the outcome of PAP.