Monday, July 11, 2011

Oral Peripheral Exam

My latest assignment at school is to perform an Oral Peripheral Exam on at least 15 people.  Any volunteers?

An oral periph. exam consists of more than just looking in someone's mouth. It is "evaluating their face, tongue, jaw, teeth, hard palate, soft palate, diadochokinectic rates, and pharynx.

For the tongue, you will be noting any structural abnormalities as well as range of motion (ROM).
For the jaw, you will be noting the occlusion at the level of the first premolar, as well as the bite - normal,  overjet, underbite, crossbite, etc.
For the teeth, please note number and condition (presence of dental caries (cavities)).
For the hard palate, please note any abnormalities in height/width.
For the soft palate, note the symmetry and movement of the velum.
For diadochokinectic rates (DDK's) administer the following: /pə/, /tə/, /kə/, /pətə/, and /pətəkə/. Listen for problems with rate and/or rhythm.
For the pharynx, note movement of the faucial pillars and the presence/absence of tonsils."
(This is quoted from my professor on my assignment.)

For a lip check, the examinee will be asked to round lips, draw corners back, close lips then puff cheeks and bite lower lip.
For the tongue, the examinee will need to stick their tongue out and put the tip up, tip down, tip right, tip left and then take the tip and draw back along hard palate.

Here is an example of DDK's:

3 comments:

Meegan, the Evil Stepmother said...

Ummmmm....I volunteer...but you can't laugh at my poor dental health. ;-)

Author Joshua Hoyt said...

I'll volunteer as well sounds interesting.

CC said...

I never do a great job of this. The best I occasionally discover is that a child's bite is so far off that therapy would be fruitless.