What Makes a Voice Sound Attractive?

Ever hear a voice that sounded sexy or attractive? Ever build a mental image of what a stranger on the phone may look like purely based on the sound of the voice??? Well, according to researchers , an attractive voice reflects an attractive perceived body size. A group of human subjects listened to the same sentence that was manipulated by altering pitch, acoustic resonance, and voice quality based on body size projections reported for animal calls and emotional human vocal expressions. …

5/01/2013 1

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Dr. Chang Quoted in the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal on 3/15/13 published a story on how voice therapy and vocal surgery can dramatically improve a person's vocal quality... seemingly taking years away from how you sound. In this story, Dr. Chang was quoted a few times and even included a patient he has treated successfully with voice surgery to restore his voice. In regards to how aging can create muscle atrophy and bowing resulting in: "It creates a breathy, raspy voice," says Christopher Y. C…

3/17/2013 1

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Voice Amplification for Patients with a Weak Voice

There are certain voicebox conditions that naturally tends to a weak sounding voice. For some, the voice is weak all the time sounding breathy or just lacks projection. For others, the voice starts out OK, but than becomes weak after talking for some period of time. There are both pathological (ie, vocal cord paralysis ) as well as functional (ie, muscle tension dysphonia ) causes of a weak voice, but in the end, a patient just wants a better sounding voice one way or another. Although v…

12/15/2012 0

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Breathing or Voice... You Can Only Have One...

Sounds like a choice taken out of a morbid horror movie... "You can ONLY have one... Your voice or your breath..." The victim than loses one or the other after making a choice getting either the tongue or head cut off with a knife. But patients with vocal cord paralysis on both sides are essentially faced with this very question. Normally, the vocal cords (TVC in picture below) found in the voicebox move to accommodate talking or breathing. When the vocal cords are a…

11/04/2012 0

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What About a "Voice-Lift" with your Facelift?

I was informed about this interesting concept on ABC news ... 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 …

8/05/2011 0

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Thyroidectomy (Thyroid Surgery) Risks

Thyroid removal (either total or only one side) is a common surgery performed by general surgeons as well as ENTs for thyroid cancer or masses suspicious for cancer. Though I no longer perform this surgery, I often get asked for my opinion regarding this surgery. Rationale for why surgery should be done or not, I leave to others as it would literally take a textbook, especially given the controversy regarding when to observe and when to surgically remove. Back when I WAS performing thyroid…

12/31/2010 0

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