Voice Lab
One of the prime USPs of Juvekar Nursing Home is Dr Juverlar’s Voice Lab. Very few ENT clinics in Mumbai have this unique facility of “Complete Voice Care” provided by a team of qualified voice care professionals.
In Dr Juvekar’s Voice Lab, we have an efficient team comprising of an experienced Voice Therapist who is also an SLR (Specialist in Laryngectomy Rehabilitation), an expert in Music for singers, a Voice Modulation Expert for patients from oratory field and the team is headed by the eminent ENT surgeon Dr Meenesh Juvekar.
Any voice change which persists for more than 5 days should not be taken lightly as it can be an indication of some laryngeal pathology including malignancy. Detailed laryngoscopic investigation along with complete voice analysis helps the team to decide the line of treatment for the patient with a given voice disorder.
Though there are some pathologic conditions which require urgent surgical intervention by the ENT surgeon, there are also some vocal cord pathologies and disorders which can be taken care of solely with Voice Therapy.
Our basic motive behind having a Voice Lab is to make maximum efforts to conserve voice non-surgically, to help post-operative patients to improve their voice quality and to help the patient maintain and enhance that quality in future.
Treatment protocols in Dr Juvekar’s Voice Lab:
- Laryngoscopic examination
- Voice Analysis
- Voice Therapy
- Expert guidance for professional voice users
- Surgery &/or Medical treatment if required
- Post surgery voice analysis and therapy
We use 70 degree laryngoscope and flexible video laryngoscope at Dr Juvekar’s Voice Lab.
Voice Therapy:
It’s a conservative line of treatment for patients with complaints of change in Voice Quality, Pitch and Intensity.
Intensity changes:
- Very loud voice
- Very soft voice
- Feeble voice
Pitch changes:
- Boy with girlish voice (Puberphonia)
- Girl with thick low pitch voice
- Pitch breaks
Quality changes:
- Hoarseness
- Harshness
- Breathiness
- Hypernasal/hyponasal voice
Voice therapy techniques are well-designed, established, tried and tested series of exercises meant for improving vocal efficiency, reducing excessive muscle tension if any, increasing muscle strength, improving breath support and establishing good breathing pattern thereby restoring proper coordination between Resonatory, Vibratory and Respiratory systems of vocal mechanism.
Majority of vocal cord pathologies like vocal nodule, swollen cords, vocal polyp, vocal cyst, hemorrhagic cords, phonatory gap, vocal paresis, etc. if detected early can be easily treated and voice be regained by voice therapy alone. Early intervention by ENT surgeon or Voice Therapist is very important.
Voice Therapy not only helps in taking care of the current pathology but it also helps in preventing the recurrence of the same in future.
Therapy for professional voice users:
To have a Voice Expert as a faculty in every music or acting institute is a well established concept abroad. It has recently started picking up in India as well, as now the awareness about voice problems in professional voice users is slowly increasing. We at Dr Juvekar’s Voice Lab are also aiming towards giving best professional help with a fully equipped voice care set up, to the professional voice users which include singers, actors, politicians, voice-over artists, teachers, call centre employees, etc. It is only when they experience any voice trouble that they approach an expert. Our efforts at Juvekar’s Voice Lab are aimed at making these professionals aware that getting into such voice problems in itself can be avoided by simple voice exercises and certain vocal care tips. We also help them enhance their voice quality.
Facilities at Dr Juvekar’s Voice Lab:
- Digital voice analysis facility
- Specially designed vocal hygiene program
- Electrolarynx dispensing
- Prosthesis fitting for laryngectomy with voice rehabilitation
- Electrical stimulation therapy
- Vocal gym program for professional voice users
- Expert guidance for professional voice users.
VOCAL HYGIENE
Has your voice gone from good to bad??
Do you want to make your voice sound better???
Then you need to follow these simple
- If your voice has become hoarse, talk minimum in that voice till you see your ENT doctor.
- Avoid Screaming, Shouting, Yelling
- Talk softly and in short sentence.
- Do not ignore even a slightest change in your voice. Please see your ENT specialist or a Voice Therapist immediately as it can be a warning sign for some serious laryngeal pathology
- Follow the medication given by your doctor properly. Do not do self medication.
- Give maximum rest to your voice. Do not do any vocal abuse i.e. continuous talking, talking loudly, yelling, screaming, calling / talking from distance & vocal misuse i.e. singing / talking in a different voice / in a different pitch etc.
- Do not clear your throat again and again. Drink water if your experience throat irritation.
- Avoid vomiting / putting finger in your mouth & cleaning your throat.
- ‘WATER’ is your medicine. Keep sipping water every 15th minute.
- Increase your liquid intake. Your body requirement is minimum 3-3½ liters of water per day.
- Avoid having drinks / food products with high acid or caffeine content.
- You can have cold water & ice creams & other cold beverages provided they dont give you cough & cold.
- Avoid eating very spicy or oily food specially when the voice is bad.
- See to it that you do not raise your voice when you are in a noisy place.
- When in a noisy place or while communicating from distance, use other means of communications i.e. clapping, gestures, whistling, using bell etc.
- Whenever possible talk face to face.
- Keep your neck & shoulder relaxed by…
- Practicing slow yawning
- By relaxation exercise given by your therapist.
- By humming &/or phonating sounds at your optimum pitch level.
- Performing / practicing in front of mirror so that you can see and feel the muscle tension in your neck.
- Do not ignore any allergy, please see your doctor.
- Give proper history to your doctor about medication, surgeries & voice problems if any.
- To avoid acid reflux, avoid going to bed immediately after having food.
- Intimate your doctor if you have acidity complaint.
- Take plain water steam for 5 mins minimum 3 times a day.
- Do not slouch or observe a poor body posture while speaking / singing. Keep your neck & back straight.
- Learn good breathing pattern from an expert. Talk in short sentences, take pauses while talking & use that pause for taking a new breath.
- Maintain environment temperature at your work place and at home.
- Avoid having chocolates, nuts, dairy products, very sugary – spicy & oily food.
- Alcohol, tobacco consumption & smoking is a STRICT NO if you have voice problem.
- Soft talking does not mean whispering. Do not whisper.
- Do not do heavy physical exercises where pushing, pulling or lifting of heavy weights is involved, specially when you have been diagnosed with a vocal cord pathology.
- Avoid exposure to smoke & dust. Mask your nose & mouth when you are in a dusty or smoky area.
- Laughing loudly & speaking in a harsh voice should be avoided.
- As the noise level is more when you are travelling, talk minimum & drink warm liquids.
- Do not talk while exercising. Avoid making sound like ‘hmm’ ‘aah’ while exercising. Talk when your breathing normalises after exercising.
- Do not talk continuously on a single breath without taking pauses as your vocal cards will get tensed if you do so. speak slowly.
- Do not hold your breath while thinking of what to talk, that will tense your vocal cords.
- Keep your articulators, your tongue, jaw muscles relaxed while speaking. Avoid talking with clenched teeth.
- Don’t talk with half closed mouth. Use oral resonance by speaking with open mouth.
- If you are not a trained professional then avoid.
- Mimicry.
- Speaking continuously in low pitch.
- Making harsh sounds.
Apart form these instructions if you are a
TRAINED VOICE PROFESSIONAL
then you also need to take care of following Do’s & Dont’s:
- Learn vocal warm up exercises from your voice therapist & do it before any vocal performance.
- Give proper rest to your voice after every performance.
- While performing (e.g. singing / acting / lecturing etc) as far as possible.
- Avoid talking in a monotonus low pitch voice continuously for longer duration.
- Don’t clear your throat again & again.
- Don’t cough to clear your throat.
- Keep sipping water.
- Avoid exessive speed.
- Use your optimum pitch level / talk in a voice which is comfortable for you.
- Avoid hard glottal attacks by giving exessive stress on words (hmm – aaah)
- Do not force your self for producing very high pitch or very low pitch voice.
- Get your laryngoscopic examination and voice Analysis done every six month from experts.
- Keep your neck, shoulder, back & chest muscles relaxed if you are singing at a different pitch level of while doing mimicry.
- Strictly avoid all sort of vocal abuses / vocal misuses & take maximum voice rest.
- Bring out the necessary change in your voice only under the guidance of your music teacher or a trained voice modulation expert.
- Try & reduce noise around you and see to it that the audience around you is quiet before you start talking specially when in a group or crowd.
- Use amplification whenever possible.
You can avoid getting into most of following vocal card pathologies, merely by maintaining
Good Vocal Hygiene :
- Vocal fold cyst
- Vocal fold nodule
- Vocal fold Polyps
- Vocal fold Haemorrhage
- Reinke’s odema
- Granulomas and Vocal Process Ulcers
- Papilloma.
- Vocal fold Scar
- Sulcus Vocalis
- Laryngeal Web
- Bowed Vocal folds
- Paralytic Vocal folds
- Laryngeal Cancers
If any voice change persists for more than 5 days then YOU NEED TO IMMEDIATELY SEE YOUR ENT SURGEON .
TREATMENT OPTIONS :
- Laryngoscopy
- Voice Analysis
- Medication / Surgery
- Voice Therapy