Learn to Protect Your Voice with Free Voice Screenings April 14-15

CINCINNATI—In recognition of the 2010 World Voice Day, voice specialists with UC Health Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery will hold free voice screenings for the public April 14-15.

Hosted each April by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, World Voice Day encourages all voice users to assess their vocal health and take action to improve or maintain good vocal habits. The theme for World Voice Day 2010 is "Love Your Voice."

Locally, UC Health voice and swallowing specialists Sid Khosla, MD, and Bernice Klaben, PhD, hope to reach out to several key populations of voice users with the screenings, including performance voice users (like singers) and professional voice users (teachers or professional speakers).
 
They say voice problems can manifest themselves in different ways, depending on the patient.

While performance users may notice a gap in their range or breaking of their pitch, professional users could find that their voice tires out easily or they have trouble finishing presentations. Khosla, a laryngologist, says elementary school teachers are at particular risk of voice problems, with about a third of teachers facing a voice problem severe enough to impair their work during their career.

Khosla also hopes to reach the region’s elderly with screenings, a population that he says often mistakes voice problems for the normal aging process. Instead of the range issues that performance users might notice, Khosla says older patients could find they have trouble being heard over the phone or in a crowded room.

"A lot of older people think that their voice issues are age-related," he says. "I'd say that almost all of the time it’s something we can fix with therapy or surgery."

During the screenings, doctors will teach patients about proper vocal hygiene and care, as well as educate them on risk factors or signs of a vocal problem. Such signs can include hoarseness lasting for more than three weeks, a chronic cough or decreased vocal range.

If left untreated, Khosla says, voice problems can become more than a medical problem, affecting patients’ social and mental well-being.

"Your voice is one of those things that you don’t realize how much you need to take care until you don’t have it anymore," he says. "You use your voice to communicate, to express yourself—it’s how you establish your identity in many ways.”

Voice screenings will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 14, at the University of Cincinnati Physicians Medical Office Building at the UC Health West Chester campus, and from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 15, at the Barrett Cancer Center at University Hospital. To schedule a screening, call (513) 475-8400.