Prevalance of soft Palatemorphology - A Unique Cephalometric Study

Soft palate as part of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal apparatus has an important role in phonation, deglutition and respiration. Its varied morphology is implicated in variety of diseases. Therefore, it is essential to establish the morphology of soft palate in normal patients to establish the variations in its morphology in various diseases. The present study aims to investigate the various shapes of soft palate and to find out predominant shape in pediatric group and adult group in Sunam population. The study population comprised of 70 patients at random that includes 35 adult patients group of age between 15–28 yrs and 35 pediatric out of which type 2 (rat tail-shaped soft palate) was the most frequent type in 16 cases (22.9%) in pediatric patient group and in 14 cases (20.0%) in adult patient group, which was an unusual finding. These findings can be used as patients group of age between 7–14 yrs, references for the research of velopharyngeal closure in cleft palate individuals and for the aetiological research of OSAS and other conditions.