Effect of palatine rugae on phonetic adaptation in complete dentures(based on the palatogram similarity of the indonesian linguo-palatal consonant)

Phonetic disturbances, or unclear pronunciation,are often found in patients after insertion of a maxillary complete denture. These disturbances can be assessed using a palatogram of the Indonesian linguo-palatal consonant. One method that is often used to improve phonetic adaptation is duplication of the palatine rugae on the maxillary complete denture base. Palatine rugae functioned as tongue placement guidance on the anterior palate to producecorrect articulation of the linguo-palatal consonant sound, especially the letters 't' and 'd.' The purpose of this study was to evaluate palatine rugaeduplicationon maxillary complete denture bases that mightaffect phonetic adaptation. Respondents were 20 wearers of maxillary complete dentures: 10 of the respondents wore maxillary complete dentures with palatine rugae, and 10 of the respondents wore maxillary complete dentures without palatine rugae. Assessment was done using palatogram 't' and 'd' pronunciation, and the similarities with Indonesian palatogram's gold standard were evaluated. This study used the crossover method, and the factors considered regarding the effect of rugae on phonetic adaptation were duration of denture wearing, age, and gender. The study found that it took one week to achieve phonetic adaptation of maxillary complete dentures with palatine rugae. The mean scores of good 't' and 'd' pronunciationwere 60.15 and 69.65 with standard deviations of 3.31 and 3.79, respectively. Conclusion: Maxillary complete dentures with palatine rugae shortens phonetic adaptation.