Maximum Phonation times of Elderly Woman with and without Upper Dental Prosthesis

Introduction: It is known that the dental prosthesis assists in the phonation, however, there are few researches comparing the phonation in women with natural dentition and women with dental prosthesis. Objective: This study aims to characterize and compare the maximum phonation time (MPT) in elderly women users of upper dental prosthesis and of the elderly women with upper natural dentition. Methods: A total of 21 elderly women who were divided into two groups: experimental group (EG) and control group (CG). In the EG, there were 13 ladies who used upper dental prosthesis, average age was 72.69 years; in CG there were 8 women who did not use dental prosthesis, mean age was 68.62 years. It analyzed the values of MPT of fricatives /s/ and /z/, and the vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ through parametric test paired Student t -test. Results: The averages of the vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ and the fricatives /s/ and /z/ were the expected in CG (16.56s; 17.50s; 18.35s; 14.52s, and 14.83s, respectively) and below the EG (10.52s; 10.61s; 10.93s; 10.91s, and 11.92s, respectively). Conclusion: The group of elderly women with natural dentition reached the MPT minimum of vowels and fricatives expected to female adults and the group of elderly women with complete upper dental prosthesis was lower than expected. Contrary to expectations, the comparison of the MPT of fricatives between groups showed no difference, but the MPT of all analyzed vowels was lower in the group with prosthesis. The results show the influence of the use of dental prosthesis on the results of MPT of elderly women. Keywords: Phonation, dental prosthesis, voice.