Patients commonly report difficulty in speaking after inferior alveolar and lingual nerve block anesthesia, largely due to transient numbness of the tongue and lips; however, whether this translates into measurable changes in voice or speech remains uncertain. In a prospective within-subject study involving 34 adults, objective assessments of acoustic voice quality, formant characteristics, and speech articulation showed no statistically significant changes following anesthesia.
In contrast, perceived speech effort increased significantly post-anesthesia, as measured by the Borg Category-Ratio 10 scale ( P < .001 ). These findings indicate that while inferior alveolar and lingual nerve block anesthesia does not objectively impair voice quality or articulation, it meaningfully increases subjective speaking effort, highlighting the importance of clinician reassurance and patient…
