The voice is an essential part of our daily communication, and it is the dream of many people to have a round and clear voice, but in our life we always encounter hoarseness, the lighter the tone becomes lower and coarser, the heavier the hoarseness, the more serious the voice can only be whispered, or even completely lost. It makes our communication more troublesome. What exactly is hoarseness, how does it occur and how can it be prevented and treated?
Hoarseness is a specific symptom of a lesion in the vocal cords. Common lesions and their prevention and treatment are as follows.
Congenital diseases
Some congenital diseases, such as congenital laryngeal webbing, congenital laryngeal stenosis, congenital vocal cord paralysis, etc., may manifest hoarseness in infancy and early childhood. Babies with these congenital disorders usually exhibit a distinctive cry soon after birth, and some children will have more pronounced symptoms by the time they are two or three months old. For example, some babies can hear a very special sound when they breathe, as if they were chickens, while others have a sunken chest and cry very little, very hoarse or not at all, which can even be life-threatening in severe cases. Therefore, if parents find that their children have these symptoms, they should take their babies to the hospital for examination as soon as possible.
Acute and chronic laryngitis
Many of our friends have this symptom: they wake up in the morning with normal vocalization, but hoarseness appears after they talk more; or they wake up with heavy hoarseness in the morning, but after they talk for a while, or after they spit out the secretions in their throat, their hoarseness is reduced; or after they abstain from talking for a while, their hoarseness is relieved, but after they talk more their hoarseness is aggravated again. These symptoms are all signs of laryngitis.
Nowadays, people socialize a lot, and there are naturally more social gatherings and dinners. But excessive Karaoke, smoking, drinking and other habits can damage the vocal cords and induce laryngitis. If the acute laryngitis is not treated in time, it can turn into chronic laryngitis.
Therefore, when you encounter acute laryngitis, you should remove the irritants as soon as possible, try to rest your voice, drink more water, keep your vocal cords moist, stay away from the environment with irritants, and go to the hospital for comprehensive treatment such as nebulization and anti-inflammatory treatment in order to avoid turning into chronic laryngitis.
Vocal cord nodules and polyps
Vocal fold nodules and polyps are common diseases that cause hoarseness. The degree of hoarseness is related to the location and size of its growth. Sometimes we may find that the voice is mute for half a year and still not well, and then we need to go to the hospital for examination to exclude diseases such as vocal cord nodules and polyps.
Vocal cord nodules and polyps are mostly caused by excessive and improper vocalization. We find that teachers, salespeople, amateur singers, etc. are the most frequent cases of this disease, and patients should go to the hospital as soon as possible. Conservative medication can be used first, but if it is not effective, surgery is necessary. The postoperative effect is good and the sound quality improves significantly.
Malignant tumor
The most common type of cancer is laryngeal cancer. Most of these patients have a long history of smoking and alcohol abuse. In the early stage, there will be unexplained hoarseness or pharyngeal discomfort, and some of them will have blood in the sputum. When the disease worsens, breathing and swallowing difficulties may occur. Therefore, if you are over 40 years old and have hoarseness and foreign body sensation in the throat that lasts for more than two weeks, you need to be examined by laryngoscopy to avoid delaying the disease.
In conclusion, there are various causes of hoarseness and many different diseases. To prevent voice disease, you must maintain good habits and do the following eight things.
1.Keep your whole body healthy.
2.Avoid excessive use of the voice.
3. Pay attention to proper vocalization. Do not go beyond the physiological characteristics of your voice range when singing and speaking, and do not force it.
4, timely treatment of upper respiratory tract diseases, especially the “cold” and acute inflammation of the throat.
5.Avoid excessive smoking and drinking.
6. Pay attention to voice control during menstruation.
7, advocate drinking tea, especially green tea.
8, throat health massage. After a long time with the voice, use the right thumb and forefinger, along the larynx around the appropriate massage, also conducive to alleviating throat muscle fatigue.