People need to use their voices everywhere in their daily life and study and work. However, if the voice is not protected, it will lead to different degrees of damage, repeated and long-term hoarseness, and even loss of voice in serious cases. Hoarseness is most common in people who use their voices for a long time, such as teachers, actors and marketers. The nature of their occupation determines that they have the characteristics of using voice with more volume, intensity and time, and these people often do not pay attention to voice health care, lack of scientific knowledge of using voice, long-term improper vocalization or excessive use of voice is very likely to cause continuous voice damage. For example, teachers and trainers have to attend 3-4 classes a day because of the many courses they have arranged, so they gradually become hoarse repeatedly, especially after the classes. There are also salespeople who need to speak a lot, and if their voice does not get good rest, the hoarseness can be relieved at first, but then it appears to be persistently hoarse and cannot get better. The most common question these patients ask their doctors after visiting a hospital is “What is wrong with my voice?” “What causes my hoarse voice?” “What should I do to prevent and treat this hoarseness?” etc.
Basic knowledge of voice
First of all, let’s understand the physiological process of human pronunciation. The vocal organs include power organs (respiratory system), vibratory organs (vocal cords), resonance organs (nose, mouth, pharynx, larynx, thorax, etc.) and organs of sound composition (lips, teeth, tongue, palate, etc.). The vocal organs provide airflow power to make the vocal folds of the vibratory organs vibrate periodically to produce laryngeal sounds, and then amplify and enhance the resonance organs to form the voice with certain pitch, intensity and timbre. Long-term inappropriate or excessive use of voice can lead to frequent impact and friction of the vocal folds, resulting in mechanical trauma, causing vascular expansion of the vocal folds, increased permeability, increased exudation, congestion and edema of the vocal folds, followed by fibrous tissue hyperplasia, resulting in chronic laryngitis, vocal fold edema, vocal fold hypertrophy, vocal fold nodules and vocal fold polyps and other benign pathological changes.
Hazards of voice disease
Hoarseness can hinder social communication, affect life, work and study, and endanger physical health. For professional voice users, voice is an important communication tool and plays a very important role in their professional activities. A quality voice is a guarantee for the continuous development of their work career and the improvement of their competitiveness. Therefore, effective prevention and timely treatment of voice diseases are very important for professional voice users.
Voice health care measures
1, master the correct and appropriate vocal method, vocal appropriate amount, avoid excessive use of voice (shouting and long time speech), in addition to the work required to complete the pronunciation of speech, try to limit other speaking time, such as reducing unnecessary chat, phone calls, etc.. Reduce the volume of speech and pronunciation at work, try to use microphone in lecture; control the volume of pitch when singing, not to sing the high notes that cannot be reached; master scientific vocal methods, such as combined chest and abdominal breathing to increase the breathing airflow and laryngeal muscle relaxation training (chewing, humming, blistering sound, etc.), avoid hard starting voice and use more soft starting voice.
2. Drink more warm water to keep the throat moist before and after working with the voice, and after using the voice, you can nebulize and inhale the water steam by yourself, or massage around the larynx by yourself to relax the laryngeal muscles.
3, pay attention to diet, avoid or eat less stimulating food, such as spicy food, fried food (melon seeds, peanuts, etc.), barbecue food, too acidic food, too salty food, too sweet food, carbonated drinks (Coke, Sprite, etc.), caffeine drinks, raw and cold food, etc.
4, quit smoking and alcohol, to avoid the stimulation of harmful substances to the throat and vocal cords.
5, pay attention to the regularity of life, reasonable, combined with work and rest, to avoid excessive fatigue, to ensure adequate sleep time.
6, avoid cold, cold, pay attention to climate change, increase and decrease clothing at the appropriate time. Pay attention to cold and warmth in winter, wear a mask outside; pay attention to summer heat, do not spend a long time under the electric fan or air conditioning to take cool.
7, reduce air pollution, maintain indoor air circulation in the work and living environment, and minimize exposure to kitchen fumes. Wear a mask outside to block the dust, and go to places with poor air circulation (such as large supermarkets, nightclubs, karaoke halls, bars, etc.).
8.Strengthen physical exercise, improve the body’s immunity and disease resistance, expand lung capacity and enhance vocal organ activity.
Prevention and control of hoarseness of voice
1.Vocal rest: Those who use their voices excessively should reduce the time of using their voices, speak less as possible, and lower the volume of their voices, and those who have severe hoarseness should preferably forbid their voices.
2.Local treatment: Apply hormone nebulizer inhalation, tablets, sprays, patches, etc.
3, oral medication: vocal cord edema can be obvious oral hormones and anti-allergic drugs, but also oral some clearing the throat, laryngeal, open sound of proprietary Chinese medicine.
4, acupuncture treatment: can promote local vasodilation of the larynx, blood flow increases, blood viscosity decreases, vocal fold inflammation and hyperplasia tissue elimination.
5, physical therapy: ultra-short wave, direct current, drug iontophoresis, etc., can increase the larynx blood circulation, eliminate inflammation.
6.Laryngeal massage: it can unblock the meridians, harmonize the qi and blood, relax the muscles and relieve fatigue.
7.Pronunciation correction: master the correct vocal method, including psychological guidance, breathing training, voice training, tone correction, chewing training, humming training, etc.
8, surgical treatment: benign vocal fold growths (nodules, polyps, etc.) can be removed by electronic fiber laryngoscopy, laryngoscopic microsurgery, etc.