Abstract:

Objective  To investigate the effects of skeletal Class Ⅲ malocclusion in mixed dentition on speech articulation and to look for which factors lead to the speech errors. Methods  Thirty-eight children with skeletal Angle Ⅲ malocclusion in mixed dentition were selected as a sample group and 40 children with normal occlusion in mixed dentition as a control group. Two phoneticians evaluated their articulations and wrote down error phonemes respectively. The correlation analysis was undertaken between the number of errors and the measurements of patients′ cephalometry. Results  The number of errors were correlated significantly with overbite, UI-LI, OBJ（OB+OJ） and TD-PW. Conclusion  There is articulatory malfunction in the majority of skeletal Angle Ⅲ malocclusion patients in mixed dentition. Articulatory malfunction is related to the position of incisors and the tongue.

Key words: skeletal Angle Ⅲ malocclusion, cephalometrics, articulation, mixed dentition