Influence of pontic design of anterior fixed dental prosthesis on speech: A clinical case study

BACKGROUND: The pontic design of fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) is strongly associated with the phonetic function, and the phonetic function of anterior FDPs with different pontic designs remains understudied. AIM: To investigate the immediate and short-term influence of pontic design of anterior FDPs on Chinese speech in a clinical case using objective acoustic analysis. METHODS: Two FDPs with two types of pontic design (saddle pontic and modified ridge lap pontic) were fabricated for one patient with maxillary anterior teeth missing. The acoustic analysis of patient’s articulation was conducted immediately after wearing the FDPs and 1 wk after wearing these FDPs. RESULTS: The effect of FDP on Chinese vowels (/a/, /o/, /e/, /i/, /u/, and /ü/) was insignificant, because the recovery of vowel distortion occurred within 1 wk for both FDPs. Three (/f/, /s/, and /sh/) of eight Chinese fricative consonants were found to have obvious distortions, and the /s/ sound distortion last for more than 1 wk for the patient wearing FDP with modified ridge lap pontic design. CONCLUSION: The influence of anterior FDP on articulation of Chinese vowels is insignificant, while the articulation of Chinese fricative consonants is more susceptible. When fabricating anterior FDPs for patients with speech related professions, saddle pontic design can be an alternative option compared with modified ridge lap pontic design.