Sarah King - McCoy - CH7

Summary: Practice good vocal hygiene by also taking care of yourself in areas not directly connected to the voice. There are a multitude of vocal disorders and a lot of gross pictures to go with them. Some causes of vocal weirdness occur due to natural events within our own bodies, like hormonal changes.

Key words:
Laryngitis – laryngeal inflammation (swelling of the lamina propria) which inhibits the cover from moving freely over the body of the vocal folds; it can last anywhere from 3 weeks to several months.
GERD/LPR – gastro-esophageal reflux disease, a condition in which stomach acid flows back into the esophagus through the sphincter at the top of the stomach, and in some cases it spill over from the esophagus to the larynx, causing irritation of laryngeal tissues and the vocal folds (when larynx is involved it is often referred to as LPR – laryngopharyngeal reflux).
Muscle Tension Dysphonia – MTD, a condition in which excessive tension occurs in the muscles of the larynx, resulting in hoarseness, vocal fatigue, and frequent pain which singing or speaking, caused by prolonged speaking with abnormally high or low pitch, use of hard glottal onset in speaking or singing voice, poor breath support for speech, and poor vocal technique.
Hemorrhage – when one or more blood vessels rupture within the vocal folds, generally caused by trauma, resulting in an impaired voice due to blood accumulating in the fold preventing mucosal wave formation and inhibiting vocal fold oscillation.
Vascular ectasias – dilated blood vessels in the cover of the vocal fold, the primary cause of vocal fold hemorrhage.
Vocal fold polyps – discrete lesions that often develop as a result of trauma, usually involves only one vocal fold, can be filled with blood or clear gelatinous material and can occur anywhere on the fold, often preceded by a hermorrahage.
Vocal fold nodules – AKA singer’s nodules, callous-like lesion located along the vibrating margin of the vocal folds, impairs normal phonation by creating a physical obstacle between the vocal folds and by damping mucosal wave formation, almost always occur bilaterally near the middle of the vibrating fold, almost exclusively a problem for women, high pitches become difficult to sustain as well as quiet dynamic levels (this differs from polyps in that polyps cause the whole vocal range to sound breathy whereas nodules mainly affect higher registers).
Vocal fold cysts – similar in appearance to polyps, but usually have the appearance of an egg-shaped mass just under the cover of the vocal fold, they generally attach to the cover of the fold and extend more deeply into the lamina propria.
Contact ulcers – sores that develop at or near the vocal process and can be either unilateral or bilateral.
Granulomas – benign growths of inflammatory tissue occurring at the vocal process, generally preceded by contact ulcers and are actually a part of the healing process from this disorder.
Vocal fold paralysis – stem from problems with the superior (SLN) or recurrent (RLN) laryngeal nerves, can impact the voice in many ways depending on which nerves and muscles are affected, can include dysphonia with breathiness, hoarseness and reduced amplitude, limited pitch modulation (monotone), aperiodic vocal fold oscillation, dysphagia (problems swallowing), loss of chest register, and diplophonia.
Laryngeal papilloma – benign wart-like lesions caused by one of the Human Papilloma Viruses (HPV), there is no cure as of yet.
Hormonal issues – woo, hormones both love and hate us all; women often experience changes in voice quality around the time of menses, called laryngopathia premenstrualis, fluid retention and tissue changes cause vocal fold edema that manifests in a slightly husky sound with reduced flexibility.

Application: Take care of yourself and understand what your norm looks and feels like so in the event something isn’t quite right you can quickly address the issue before it can become worse.