PURPOSE: to check the effects of rapid maxillary expansion (RME) with Haas, made by orthodontistic, in speech of the patient with cleft lip and palate. METHODS: 12 subjects, 6 boys and 6 girls, with age between 7 and 14-year old, divided in two groups. Group 1 (G1), was submitted to conventional activation RME protocol and Group 2 (G2), was submitted to activation ERM protocol in accordance with Liou and Tsai (2005) as for alternate expansions and constrictions. The subjects were submitted to speech evaluation, perceptual analysis by speech therapists and laymen judgment and spectrographic evaluation of speech with Praat program. RESULTS: the measure of vocal' emission times was statistically relevant after RME to vocal [i] in G1 and to vocal [a] in G2. In perceptual analysis, no statistical relevance was found among the groups as for Nasality and Articulation evaluation, but as judges deemed that Nasality became better, they deemed that Articulations was better too, as well as the variables "Better", "Equal" and "Worse". CONCLUSION: the decrease of vocal emission times after RME, show us that the increase in nasal air escape cause a smaller emission time. The perceptual analysis seems to be an efficient kind of evaluation, demonstrating agreement amongst the judges, both layman as well as speech pathologists. The perceptual analysis also showed that as Nasality decreases, the Articulation improves.
Cleft Palate; Palatal Expansion Technique; Speech
