The sound produced by the vibration of the vocal cords is resonated by the nasal cavity, the oral cavity and the thoracic cavity, and then formed by the synthesis and adjustment of the lip, tongue, cheek, palate and other structures of the oral cavity, resulting in each person’s unique voice.
Why is my voice hoarse?
The vocal cords are the core structure of our voice, and a healthy voice depends on healthy vocal cords, so if there is a problem with the vocal cords, it will cause hoarseness.
Hoarseness is very common and many of us have experienced hoarseness. Once the voice is hoarse, it means that there is a problem with the vocal cords and it is important to go to the hospital for an examination. But some people don’t take hoarseness seriously, thinking that it is caused by laryngitis, so they don’t need to make a big deal out of it and will be fine after a while by taking a little anti-inflammatory medicine. In fact, there are many reasons for hoarseness. In addition to laryngitis, vocal cord polyps and vocal cord nodules, hoarseness can also be caused by white spots on the vocal cord, but white spots on the vocal cord can become cancerous, so if hoarseness is caused by white spots on the vocal cord, more attention should be paid. In more serious cases, many people may not have thought that hoarseness may also be caused by laryngeal cancer, and if it is caused by laryngeal cancer, the consequences are very serious. Therefore, the cause of hoarseness is not known to the patient, and the cause can only be clarified after examination by a doctor. Therefore, we should not ignore hoarseness, especially for male comrades who like to smoke and are over 45 years old. (See pictures of vocal cord polyps).
Why do vocal fold polyps grow?
Vocal fold polyp is one of the most common causes of hoarseness. Vocal fold polyp is a common disease in ENT and is a type of chronic laryngitis. The main symptom is hoarseness and laryngoscopy reveals polyp-like symmetrical nodular elevation at the junction of the anterior and middle 1/3 of the vocal folds on one or both sides. The cause of vocal cord polyps is clear, but the disease is long, not easy to completely cure, and easy to recur after surgery.
The causes of vocal fold polyps are as follows.
First, the main reason is the improper use of sound or bad pronunciation habits.
1, the first case of improper use of voice, and the most common situation is to speak for too long, related to the occupation, such as teachers, managers, ticket sellers, salesmen, etc., they need to talk a lot because of their work. But too much speech, beyond the vocal cords long capacity, will cause vocal cord congestion, edema, inducing vocal cord polyps.
2, the second case of improper use of sound, speech, pronunciation of the tone is too high. Such as children like to scream, screaming, vocal cord vibration frequency far beyond the usual vocal cord vibration frequency when we speak, which will damage the vocal cords.
3, the third case of improper use of voice speech is too loud, the volume is too high. Some people like to shout, someone easily excited, often lose their temper, this situation will also damage the vocal cords. Singing karaoke crowd are generally amateurs who like to sing, without professional training, especially for the high notes, there is no correct method of pronunciation, they are sometimes not singing, but in the roar, the result will aggravate the vocal cord damage.
Second, inflammation of the upper respiratory tract such as acute and chronic laryngitis. When suffering from acute and chronic laryngitis, the vocal cords are already congested, and at this time the tolerance of the vocal cords to vibration and friction during vocalization decreases, so on the basis of acute and chronic laryngitis, such as improper use of voice or excessive use of voice, more likely to induce the formation of vocal cord polyps.
Third, long-term tobacco and alcohol stimulation. Many research results show that long-term excessive tobacco and alcohol stimulation of the vocal cords, leading to chronic inflammation of the vocal cords, based on the abuse of voice, more likely to cause vocal cord polyps.
Fourth, overworked, stay up late to form a subhealthy state. In the sub-healthy state, the vocal cord load capacity decreases, the vocal cord is easily fatigued, congested, speak a little more, feel short of breath, throat discomfort, and easily hoarse.
Excessive use of sound is the main reason for the formation of vocal cord polyps, a person with bad habits such as smoking, drinking glasses, and then overworked, staying up late to form a subhealthy state, this time the vocal cords are more likely to fatigue, congestion, vocal cord vibration friction tolerance decreased, and then use the voice improper or excessive use of sound, it adds insult to injury, more likely to induce the formation of polyps.
How to treat vocal cord polyps?
First, etiological treatment: etiological treatment is the most basic treatment, change the original vocal habits. Be sure to correct the bad vocal habits, if necessary, vocal training. Usually speak calmly, volume, pitch, and time should be properly controlled, we all have a double day off, the vocal cords also need to degree weekends, when you feel vocal fatigue, to sound rest for a moment. To quit smoking and alcohol, to go to bed early, rest well, usually appropriate activities to enhance physical fitness. After removing the cause of the disease, some of the vocal cord nodules will subside. If you do not change the late night, overwork, excessive smoking and alcohol, too much speech, subhealth state, is to take medicine every day, eat more medicine, vocal cord polyps will not subside.
Second, drug conservative treatment: vocal cord small polyps (such as sesame size polyps) or wide basal hypertrophic polyps, do not need to be found on the surgery, can first etiological treatment and Chinese medicine treatment, some polyps can disappear. If conservative treatment is not effective for four weeks, surgery can be performed. Children’s vocal fold nodules, can be temporarily not to deal with, as long as not shouting, children’s vocal fold nodules can mostly subside, without surgery.
Left vocal fold polyp before conservative treatment
Left vocal fold polyp disappeared after conservative treatment
Third, microlaryngoscopic removal of vocal fold polyps: small vocal fold polyps conservative treatment for four weeks is ineffective, can be surgical treatment. Larger vocal fold polyps, generally conservative treatment is ineffective, without conservative treatment, can be directly operated (see vocal fold polyp photos). Surgical removal of vocal fold polyps is the fastest and effective method. There are many surgical methods, such as direct laryngoscopy under surface anesthesia, fiberoptic laryngoscopy, and microlaryngoscopy under general anesthesia to remove vocal fold polyps.
Disadvantages of laryngoscopic removal of vocal fold polyps under epi-laryngoscope: the patient is in pain, the surgical removal of polyps is not very clean, the surgical damage is large, the effect is poor, and it is easy to cause cardiovascular accidents in patients with hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Episodic fiberoptic laryngoscopy is poorly performed with poor refinement and poor results.
The characteristics of general anesthesia microlaryngoscopic excision of vocal cord polyps: no pain for patients, high precision of operation, clean removal of polyps, little damage, good surgical results, is currently the most widely used and best minimally invasive surgery. In our hospital, general anesthesia microlaryngoscopic excision of vocal fold polyps, the whole anesthesia, surgery time of about half an hour, hospitalization for two days.
Precautions during surgery
1, the surgical positioning should be accurate, not to damage the normal vocal folds, the operation should be highly refined, the polyp should be accurately removed according to the size of the polyp, and the vocal folds should be trimmed. Removal of vocal fold polyps can neither have residuals nor overkill. If there is residue, the large polyp will become a small polyp and there will be hoarseness. If overkill, removing too much mucosa from the vocal cords will cause vocal cord edge defects and incomplete vocal door closure, which will also cause hoarseness, which is difficult to remedy.
2, The teeth should be protected during the surgery.
3, Bilateral vocal fold polyps, to prevent vocal fold adhesions.
Effect of surgical treatment
Vocal cord polyps without laryngitis have good surgical results, and the voice will return to normal soon after surgery. With laryngitis polyp surgery effect is poor, to return to normal voice, but also to cure the laryngitis. Some patients are still hoarse after surgery, there is no polyp in the examination, but the vocal cord is chronically congested, which is the cause of hoarseness, not related to surgery.
Smaller good polyps have good surgical results and can return to normal voice soon after surgery; large polyps with wide base have poor surgical results, and large polyps with wide base will slowly return to normal voice only weeks after surgery.
The effect of vocal fold polyp surgery is not satisfactory.
Post-operative precautions: If the surgery goes smoothly and the surgery is very traumatic, generally no anti-inflammatory drugs (antibiotics) are needed after the surgery, some Chinese medicine (tonics) can be eaten, and less speech is needed for two weeks after the surgery (no sound ban), and normal speech is possible after two weeks. Don’t use your voice excessively (voice abuse) again after surgery, talk loudly and shout for a long time without restraint …… otherwise you will grow vocal fold polyps again.
Voice care
1. Let your vocal cords rest in time, avoid talking and singing for a long time, and try not to shout.
2, to actively exercise and keep in good condition so that the vocal cords are not easily congested and edematous and do not easily grow polyps or nodules.
3, maintain good habits, should try to avoid strong tea, spicy food, tobacco and alcohol stimulation, so as to avoid vocal cord congestion, edema.
When you have a cold or cough, your vocal cords are already congested and edematous to varying degrees, so excessive vocalization and karaoke will aggravate the congestion and edema and make it easier to grow polyps or nodules.
5, the voice health care during menstruation should also pay attention to the vocal cords during menstruation is mildly congested, swollen, so avoid abusing the voice during menstruation.
6, pay attention to voice health care during the voice change period. The voice change period is a natural physiological phenomenon in the process of voice development of each person, and generally the voice change period for boys is 10-12 years old and for girls is 12-14 years old. During this period, the pitch of the voice decreases significantly and changes from a child’s voice to an adult’s voice. Special attention should be paid to not shouting, do not sing for a long time, read aloud for a long time, otherwise, easy to grow vocal cord nodules.
7, singing karaoke, according to their own situation, choose a song suitable for their own, because everyone’s vocal cords are not the same, some people are not suitable for choral soprano, do not sing high-pitched pop songs, because when singing soprano, vocal cord vibration frequency is very fast, vocal cord vibration frequency per second up to more than a thousand times, it is easy to cause vocal cord damage.
8, feel vocal fatigue, to let the vocal cords rest.
9, long loud speech, singing karaoke often feel dry mouth, to drink warm water to moisten the throat, do not drink and cold drinks.
10, maintain a good state of mind, try not to lose temper, quarrel.