Some clinicians believe that the measure “nasalance” refers only to the numbers resulting from a version of a nasometer marketed by KayPentax, or previously by Kay Elemetrics. Is that true?
No, this is not true. The term ‘nasalance’ was proposed by Fletcher and his associates in the early 1970s for the variable measured by his various TONAR systems. KayPentax later adopted it for their version of the TONAR system. It was not originally proposed by KayPentax. [Fletcher, S.G. and Frost, S.D., Quantitative and Graphic Analysis of Prosthetic Treatment for Nasalance in Speech, J. of Prosthetic Dentistry, Vol. 32, 284-91 (1974); Fletcher, S.G., Nasalance vs. Listener Judgments of Nasality, Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, Vol. 13, 31-44 (1976)] The term ‘nasalance’ was put forth as a generic term for this type of measurement and is used that way in the literature. For example, Tim Bressman, in the article “Comparison of Nasalance Scores Obtained With the Nasometer, the NasalView and the OroNasal System” (Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, Vol. 42, No. 4 (2005)) recognizes that there are at least three systems being marketed that measure nasalance. This assumption was accepted
