Customizing palatal contours of a denture to improve speech intelligibility.

Accurate approximation of palatal contours of a maxillary complete denture to a patient's tongue can improve speech intelligibility, if other factors such as tooth position, occlusal plane, and occlusal vertical dimension are satisfactory. Customizing palatal contours of a maxillary complete denture can be accomplished by using tissue-conditioning material, which provides sufficient working time for a patient to pronounce a series of sibilant sounds while recording dynamic impression of the tongue. This article describes a technique for customizing palatal contours of a maxillary complete denture with autopolymerizing acrylic resin to improve speech intelligibility.