PURPOSE: to investigate possible changes in speech, chewing and swallowing in users orthodontic appliances with features (intraoral) fixed on the palate. METHOD: a total of 28 patients of both sexes, in the 10-24 age-group, were evaluated. These patients were being treated at the CEREO - Centro de Reabilitação Estética Orofacial (Aesthetic and Orofacial Rehabilitation Center) in Campinas, São Paulo. They were evaluated by speech therapists before they had their orthodontic appliances installed and also 30 days after they were using these appliances with feature. All subjects were previously evaluated by orthodontists from the CEREO and were candidates to the installation of intraoral features. The speech therapist's test was composed of two parts: the first was the evaluation of chewing, swallowing and speech, according to the MBGR protocol and the second was a phonological evaluation of language. The statistical tests applied were: Two Proportions Equality Test, Chi-Square Test for Independence. We considered significant the associations with p-value <0.10. RESULTS: for the sample analyzed, there were no statistically significant changes in chewing and swallowing after one month of use of intraoral features. In speech, 64.3% of the sample did not change, but in 25% of the patients it was observed a distortion of consonant clusters in the presence of circuit breaker type appliances. CONCLUSION: the use of fixed orthodontic appliances with intraoral features causes statistically significant changes only in speech.
Speech; Mastication; Deglutition; Orthodontics
