The "serious" disease of teachers

Inside the larynx is a structure called the vocal cords. Air is inhaled and exhaled when passing through here, vibrating the vocal cords to create sound. Talking a lot, speaking loudly, shouting, speaking for a long time damages the vocal cords (teachers, actors, sales people, stock exchange employees, etc.).

When using a vocal cord endoscope, different types of lesions on the vocal cords can be seen, such as: thick and stiff vocal cords, poor vibration (in chronic laryngitis), fibrous nodules on the vocal cords (in vocal cord fibrous nodules) or a "lump of excess flesh" on the vocal cords (also known as vocal cord polyps).

Lesions such as vocal cord nodules and vocal cord polyps, if left untreated for a long time, or treated incorrectly or with surgical errors, will cause the vocal cords to become "concave" (at this time the patient will have a "roof" voice, meaning men speak in a female voice and women speak in a male voice).

Chronic laryngitis:

Talking too much for a long time causes chronic inflammation of the laryngeal mucosa, causing hoarseness, sometimes loss of voice or a “hoarse” voice. This disease is easily detected during laryngoscopy. Once infected, the following treatments should be followed:

- Rest, limit talking, limit talking too much and speaking loudly, use support tools such as microphones and speakers.

- Drink plenty of water, especially warm tea. Supplement with vitamins and fresh fruit.

- Regularly clean nose and throat. Completely treat diseases: pharyngitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis.

- Avoid irritants: cold, dust, cigarettes, wear masks, warm scarves.

- Apply hot compress to the neck, rinse mouth many times with tea, and suck on honey and lemon.

- Do not drink ice water, spitting affects the larynx.

- Create harmony between pronunciation and breathing.

- Steam with aromatic leaves that contain volatile plant antibiotics such as: feverfew leaves, lemon leaves, grapefruit leaves, lemongrass... Inhale, apply medicine, and instill laryngeal medicine daily.

Chronic inflammation of the laryngeal mucosa is easily recognized by vocal cord nodules endoscopy.

There are fibrous nodules on the 2 vocal cords, causing the 2 vocal cords to not close tightly or vibrate unevenly. This makes pronunciation difficult, the voice becomes increasingly hoarse, and makes you lose your breath and strain when speaking. The degree of hoarseness depends on the size of the fibrous nodules. Hoarseness worsens when you have a cold, have a sore throat, or when you shout or sing a lot. You need to follow the following treatment principles:

- Temporary cessation of speech: The first step of treatment helps improve voice quality by reducing edema and shrinking fibrous nodules, but hoarseness does not completely disappear. Hoarseness may gradually increase, unless the frequency and pitch of the voice are adjusted appropriately (ie, changing the habit of speaking loudly and a lot).

- Use anti-inflammatory drugs: Reduce swelling, thereby reducing hoarseness, but does not completely resolve the cause of hoarseness.

- Voice training: A treatment method. The purpose of voice training is to help patients recognize the situation and bad habits of the voice that will cause vocal nodules, thereby helping patients find a voice method to reduce the impact on the vocal cords. However, this method is only effective when detected early and requires a lot of time and effort. Voice training helps the vocal cords become softer and more flexible to improve voice quality.

- Nodule removal procedure: in most cases, when the nodule has appeared for a long time, other treatment methods have been repeated many times but have not improved the hoarseness, this method will completely resolve the hoarseness.

In addition to hoarseness, the patient also feels like there is something stuck in the throat and has to spit frequently. The definitive treatment is endoscopic polypectomy.