Medical Area

The Speech Therapist is a health care professional responsible for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disorders of human communication, including all associated with expression and comprehension of oral and written language, as well as other forms of nonverbal communication. Intervenes in the the following areas:

• Verbal and nonverbal communication;
• Oral and written language;
• Speech and articulation;
• Reading and writing;
• Voice;
• Swallowing and chewing.

Assesses and intervenes in individuals of all ages, from newborns to the elderly, with the objective of maximize the communication or swallowing of the individual (safe passage of food and drink through the oropharynx to ensure adequate nutrition), improving their life quality.

Simultaneously, plays an important role in health education, level of awareness of their problem, making it active and cooperative to solve it.

What is the role of the Speech Therapist in dentistry?

Its intervention in dentistry is needed when patients present changes at the level of dental occlusion, facial typology associated with disorders of the muscles and parafunctional habits. He intervenes mainly in the following areas:

Pediatric Dentistry

Early diagnosis and treatment of various disorders of the stomatognathic system, such as sucking, chewing, swallowing, breathing and phonation;

Orthodontics

The unique work of the speech therapist in partnership with the orthodontist aims to achieve, in persons of any age and in the shortest possible time, stable aesthetic and functional results, preventing the teeth resume the position they had before treatment with braces;

Prosthodontics and oral rehabilitation

Assesses and intervenes in muscle and functional imbalances that often interfere negatively with the treatments performed, maintaining the harmony of occlusion and correcting persistent incorrect patterns;

Occlusion and temporomandibular dysfunction

Acts at the level of facial muscles, aiming to adapt the tone and mobility, modifying important factors for the symptoms associated with this disorder.

Warning signs in children:

• Does not react to sounds or to his name;
• Does not point to objects of common use;
• Does not understand simple sentences and has a small vocabulary for age;
• Does not correctly produces words, omitting or changing the sounds;
• Performs prolongations, pauses and repetitions of syllables or words when speaking (stuttering);
• Does not describe events of the day-to-day;
• Yells a lot and is often hoarse or even voiceless;
• Presents some difficulties in chewing food;
• Presents difficulties in relationships with friends or adults, as well as to establish eye contact with them;
• Presents difficulties in reading and writing words, making mistakes that should have been overcome for age;
• Presents difficulty breathing through the nose and is constantly clogged.

Warning signs in adults:

• Presents an unintelligible speech, not being understood by the interlocutors;
• Presents itself hoarse frequently;
• Performs prolongations, pauses and repetitions of syllables or words when speaking (stuttering);
• Has difficulty chewing or swallowing food;
• Chokes up with solid or liquid foods.