PURPOSE: to observe the capacity to articulate speech in five Venezuelan individuals who use orthodontic dental apparatus and to verify the influence of the apparatus on the perception of speech from their interlocutors. METHODS: the corpus of study consists of two recordings of the lecture of a Minimal Pairs Test done by five speakers before and after beginning the treatment with the apparatus. These recordings were submitted to twenty listeners who were asked to answer what they have perceived. Each one of the listeners checked the option that they believed to have perceived. RESULTS: data analysis showed that sounds, distinctive features and places of articulation are affected by using apparatus by the speakers. The sounds mostly affected by the dental apparatus are / t /, / m /, / p /, / f /,/ b /, / /, <FONT FACE=Symbol>m</font>/ k / and /t<FONT FACE=Symbol>ò</FONT> /; the distinctive features affected are [grave]: / b - d /, / f - s /, / m -mu/, / m - n / and / p - t/; [sonorous]: / g - k /, / p - b / and / t - d / and [interrupted]: /t<FONT FACE=Symbol>ò</FONT> - s /; the places of articulation affected are bilabial, alveolar, palatal, dental and interdental. CONCLUSIONS: the existence of orthodontic dental apparatuses in the oral cavity causes serious problems in the articulation of the linguistic sounds affecting in that way the perception of speech from the interlocutors. Articulation problems decrease with time.
Orthodontic Appliances; Speech; Perception
