What is voice therapy? Voice therapy is a treatment protocol that is used to successfully manage and treat voice disorders and includes a program that consists of both vocal and physical exercises. When these exercises are used in conjunction with learned behavior patterns the end result will help patients recover from the vocal symptoms that they are experiencing and causing distress. The experts at ENT Specialists understand that symptoms vary between each patient, so programs are tailored to each patient’s individual requirements. Voice disorders can be caused by underlying diseases and illnesses, most of which are treatable.
Voice disorders can be caused by many different ailments, including physical diseases such as nodules, polyps & cysts, granuloma, laryngitis, muscle dysphonia and cancer of the larynx and vocal folds. Many of these voice disorders have more than one symptom for example hoarseness and shortness of breath can be caused by a number of problems and diseases of the larynx. To understand what is causing your voice problem, contact a laryngologist for a complete evaluation and diagnosis of your voice problems.
Voice therapy requires a positive interaction between the therapist and the patient in order to ensure optimal results. Most voice exercises begin by learning correct voice production techniques which is then carried over into words, phrases and finally sentences until this new learned behavior can be integrated into the patient’s conversational speech.
The Accent Method Voice Therapy: the accent method is holistic in nature and uses rhythmic exercises to address pitch, loudness and timbre of the voice jointly rather than as separate entities. Variations in both pitch and loudness are incorporated to gain increased vocal continuity and flexibility.
Confidential Voice Treatment: this method is typically used in short term voice problems often after surgical procedures. Confidential voice is also a modified voice/rest regimen that can be used as part of a longer term program which alternates rest and intense voice exercises. Confidential voice is an easy low airflow style of phonation that is designed to maintain the normal pitch of the voice.
Digital Laryngeal Manipulation Therapy: digital laryngeal manipulation or laryngeal massage is designed to decrease the excessive contraction of the muscles of the larynx. Treatment includes focal palpation, circumlaryngeal massage and manual repositioning of the larynx.
Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT): this is one of the most intense voice therapy programs and requires attendance four days per week for four weeks consecutively. The focus of this program is the use and production of a loud voice. This program is helpful for many types of diseases including Parkinson’s disease.
Resonant Voice Therapy: Resonant voice techniques are designed to increase the power and clarity of the voice. The goal of resonant voice therapy is to create an optimal pressure balance between the pressure in the lungs and below the vocal folds. This technique is most commonly used in cause of primary and secondary muscle tension dysphonia.
