Utilizing speech to simplify a personalized denture service.

This article discusses the highlights of making personalized dentures. It shows how the design and position of both anterior and posterior teeth are influenced and greatly simplified by correlating these factors with articulate speech. ‘‘Being articulate’’ means speaking with sharp enunciation; ‘‘being inarticulate’’ means communicating or just talking with a slurring of words. We must realize that people can talk without teeth and sometimes do it better that way than they do with inadequate dentures. This article also explains why occlusion is correlated to speech: these two subjects are often considered unrelated because occlusion is a contacting position of teeth whereas, during speech, the lower teeth function in space and there must be no contact with the upper teeth at any time. This approach is a very simple one and can be applied to any denture technique except those using linear concepts of occlusion that do not restore the natural horizontal and vertical overlaps. Martone pointed out that dentists’ responsibilities are with the lower half of the face and that in this part of the face there are two types of support. First, the external supports consist of the zygomatic bones, themandible, the fatty tissue, and the salivary glands; these Martone considered as fixed supports which the dentist has to accept whether the patient is edentulous or not. Then there are the internal supports of the face which consist of the anterior teeth, the posterior teeth, and the anatomic structures supporting these teeth; Martone pointed out that when these supports are lost the lips, cheeks, and facial length suffer materially. Let us evaluate Martone’s observations in greater depth.Consider the controls which remain following extractions. First he mentioned the zygomatic bones, over which we must agree we have no control. Next is the mandible, and here we can only agree that we must accept its size and shape because the pattern of its movements also remains the same following extractions.