Babita Prasad* and Renuka Ammanagi
Objectives: The soft palate is known as velum or muscular palate, a posterior fibromuscular part of palate that is attached to posterior edge of hard palate. Functions of soft palate are sucking, swallowing and pronunciation. The classification system of soft palate can be important for the assessment of velopharyngeal closure and in diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea individuals. Considering this, the present study was done to investigate the variation in the morphology of the soft palate. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 patients belonging to both the genders, in the age group 18-50 years, were selected from the outpatients visiting the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology. All the study samples were subjected to lateral cephalogram and the morphology of the soft palate was categorized as described by You et al. The data obtained were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis. Results: The morphology of soft palate was categorized into six types. Type 2 was the commonest type observed. The relationship between the different types of soft palate in various age groups was
found to be non-significant. 2% of the subjects were having type 5 or’ s’ shaped soft palate can have high risk of obstructive sleep apnea. Conclusion: This radiographic classification of morphologic variants of soft palate can be used as reference for the research in individuals with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome
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