From the other end of the phone came a voice of "Hello" which was extremely deep and hoarse. It made the other party think that he had dialed the wrong number. After dialing it again, a young woman answered the phone. After attending a concert, Xiaomei suddenly found a tingling sensation in her throat the next day. She thought it was a small cold, but after a doctor's diagnosis, she found that it was a nodule on her vocal cord. These are called voice disorders which are common in everyone’s daily lives.

Before we understand the voice disorders, let's understand how it works: Through the contraction of abdominal muscles, the thoracic cavity expands and the diaphragm moves up. Then the air passes through the glottis via the trachea and vibrates the vocal cords. The vocal cords respond to the speed of exhalation and adjust the thickness of the vocal cords while making sound.

What are Voice Disorders

The causes of voice disorders can be divided into two categories.

• Organic voice disorders: the main causes are changes in laryngeal structure or function caused by organic diseases, such as chronic inflammation, benign or malignant tumors, congenital structural abnormalities, endocrine disorders and neurological diseases.
• Functional voice disorders: the main reason is the abuse of voice, which can be divided into the following four types:

1. Voice quality disorders: Poor pronunciation, roughness, breathy voice, hoarseness, aphonia, habitual hard glottal attack, abnormal fake vocal cord vocalization, complex sound, laryngeal tone, laryngeal tense sound, excessive or insufficient use of voice, whispering, vocalization breaking, spastic abnormal vocalization, sharp voice, tremor, voice interruption, voice fatigue
2. Pitch disorders: Habitual pitch is too low or too high, pitch range is narrow, pitch is broken, and pitch is too high or too low in particular situations.
3. Intensity disorders: The sound is too loud or too faint to be heard at a certain distance.
4. Resonance disorders: Excessive or insufficient nasal sound.

Principles of Voice Therapy

• Teach the correct use of sound: First, learn the skills of "listening" and identify whether you are in the situation of misuse or abuse of sound, so that you can always be alert to the situation and prevent the sound from being misused or abused again.
• Methods for protecting our voices

1. Avoid using voice for an extended period of time, such as talking on the phone or singing. When speaking, use the tone and volume that suits you. Speak in the easiest way possible.
2. Try to avoid talking or singing in a noisy environment, because when the ambient noise increases, we will unconsciously raise the volume and pitch, causing excessive closure and pressure on the vocal cords. Shouting or raising the volume should be avoided. In noisy environment, auxiliary amplification such as microphone can be used.
3. Drink a small amount of water several times (2000-3000 C.C. per day is preferable) and avoid irritating foods or beverages, such as cigarettes, alcohol, chilies, coffee, and strong tea to prevent gastroesophageal reflux burning vocal cords. It is strongly advised not to overeat before bedtime.
4. Avoid clearing your throat, coughing or using breathy tones, which can cause excessive closure of your vocal cords.
5. Pay attention to the mood when speaking, and keep a relaxed mood. Avoid yelling when you are emotionally agitated, such as angry or sad.

• Relaxation exercises: When speaking, the vocal cords appear to be in an inappropriate state of tension, thus making the voice pitch too high or too low, or making the voice volume rise. The longer we speak, the harder we will feel. The more serious the situation is, the more we will rub the vocal cords when they are shaking, and the longer we speak, the more pathological changes will develop in vocal cords, such as vocal nodules. Therefore, the relaxation exercise is to relax the muscles of the larynx by relaxing the muscles of the whole body.
• Teach proper breathing: breathing is the foundation of vocalization in the complex vocal process, so proper breathing can also improve the way we sound. Find out the most effective way of vocalization and the most suitable tone.
• Find out the most effective way of vocalization and the most suitable tone: Everyone has his or her own sound quality and pitch, and they use the least force to produce the largest volume.
• Most people with voice disorders can achieve good therapeutic effect as long as they patiently cooperate with the diagnosis and treatment plan.