Foreign Accent Syndrome

Today there are many diseases and problems that can effect one or more areas of our body or mind. In recent years there scientist and researches have been able to identify new diseases that we were not aware of before.

Todays it is known that the fear of dentists affects about 75 % of all adults in the US and recent studies report that there is a new reason for which people resist getting their teeth check.

In a medical case, a women from Oregon who got sedated for dental implant surgery and woke up with a British accent. After analysis doctors determine that she suffered a rare condition known as Foreign Accent Syndrome.

Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS)

Foreign Accent Syndrome is a speech disorder that causes a sudden changes to our accent/speech. When one suffers from this condition, the person seems to be speaking with a “foreign” accent.

In other clinical cases it has been reported that FAS can be a result of damage to the brain caused traumatic brain injury, a stroke, in other cases because of multiple sclerosis and/or a conversion disorder.

FAS has been documented in cases around the world, including accent changes from Japanese to Korean, British English to French, American-English to British English, and Spanish to Hungarian.

Symptoms

As we mention, Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a neurological problem that affects our speech, causing distorted rhythms and tones, the most common include:

• Changing sound quality by moving the tongue or jaw differently while speaking
• Consonant substitution, deletion or distortion
• Incorrectly stringing sentences together
• Inserting “uh” to words
• Making vowel sounds longer and lower
• Predictable vocal errors
• Problems to pronounce consonant clusters
• Substituting words or using inappropriate words to describe something
• Voicing errors
• Vowel distortions or prolongations

When a patient is diagnose with Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) the symptoms can last for months, years, or may be permanent, however early detection will reduce this syndrome effects.

Diagnosis

Because, Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) affects less than 100 people worldwide; it takes several specialist to evaluate the syndrome and diagnosis it. Specialist such as speech-language pathologists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, and psychologists can help to identify the syndrome or you can visit this website devoted to "FAS Support".

A characteristic symptoms of this syndrome is that patient moves their tongue or jaw differently, creating different sounds; to determine if a person has FAS your voice will be recorded in order to analyze speech pattern.

In addition to psychological tests, images of the brain are taken with either MRI, CT, SPECT or PET scans. Your doctor(s) will analyze theses scans to determine if any damage has been done to the areas of the brain that control rhythm and melody of speech.

Foreign Accent Syndrome Prevention

There are several steps one can take to prevent a stroke you can reduce the risk of FAS, we invite you to follow these guideline:

• Call for emergency medical services if you have symptoms of a stroke
• Do not use DRUGS
• Exercise regularly
• Have a healthy diet
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Reduce or quit smoking – check with your doctor about ways to quit
• Visit your doctor and check your blood pressure

Foreign Accent Syndrome Treatment

There are several treatment options available to prevent and treat FAS; these include:

• Speech therapy
• Counseling

New Edge Treatments

Sani Dental Group is one of the largest dental clinic in the city of Los Algodones offers patients more than 25 dental treatments and all at affordable rates when compare to US and Canada health system rates. In addition to offering more than 25 dental treatments, in 2015 Sani Dental Group will offer its visitors and patient’s new facilities.

We invite you to visit Los Algodones and experience the many services that our new facilities will offer you.