With many aging baby boomers tapping into cosmetic surgery in order to look younger, some are taking it a step further to "sound" younger as well with a "voice lift".
For some, it's not right to look 10-20 years younger after a facelift but still sound like 70 years old.
A hoarse voice with aging is not unusual, but a surgical "voice-lift" is not necessarily the first step that should be taken.
First things first...
• Make sure the hoarseness is not due to something bad like vocal cord cancer. As a person ages, risk of cancer does increase especially if tobacco and alcohol use is present.
• Make sure there are no physical problems with the vocal cords like paralysis, polyp, cysts, reflux, etc.
Beyond that, vocal limitations often seen with the aging voice should first be addressed with voice therapy. Bowed vocal cords as well as compensatory muscle tension dysphonia are conditions often seen in this patient population causing a significant raspy voice and often respond quite well to voice therapy. Should voice therapy fail to resolve the vocal disquality, than surgical options can be considered.
What are the surgical options?
Just like a facial wrinkle may require a collagen injection to plump it up or a chin implant to address a receding chin, the vocal cord can also undergo collagen injections or receive an implant to plump it up and give it volume lost to aging which can lead to vocal problems.
Click here to read more about this procedure.
Click here to read the ABC new report.
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