****VOICE BOX****
Professional Voice Care Tips

TREAT YOUR VOICE WITH CARE

Avoid or limit infections throughout the year.  Protect your vocal cords from hoarseness caused by upper respiratory infections (URIs).

Ignoring early signs of a cold is a common mistake that often leads to voice problems. Viral infections cause most URIs.  The best treatment is early detection.  Antibiotics are not usually the first line of treatment.  When a cold starts, rest, increased hydration, and good nutrition are critical.

All voice users require lots of water, especially at the start of a cold. Drinking lots of water during a cold helps your body get rid of infection.  At the start of a cold, avoid caffeine found in coffee, tea, and soft drinks. In addition, allergy and cold medications containing antihistamines, which dry out the body, should be avoided.

If a URI accompanies a sore throat, bathing vocal cords with fluids does not help a sore throat. Many believe that fluids like warm tea, water, or the soothing liquid from mints or lozenges directly bathe the vocal cords. While these liquids may coat and comfort the pharynx, or throat, they never touch the vocal cords and provide no direct relief from a sore throat.

Avoid the use of throat-numbing lozenges. If you do use a mint or lozenge to soothe a sore throat, do not use products containing menthol, phenol, or benzocaine that can numb the pharynx. While you may decrease the pain, the numbing effect may give you a false sense of security and lead to further injury to your voice.

Voice rest can be very helpful during a cold. Avoid voice abuse such as yelling, screaming, and loud crying at the start of a cold.  Limit and reduce singing, talking on the telephone and being in noisy environments--especially where cigarette smoke is present.

Coughing can be very harmful to the voice. A silent cough technique helps prevent trauma caused by coughing. Staying well-hydrated minimizes throat clearing and coughing, and makes thick postnasal drainage associated with a cold as thin as possible. Cough medication can also thin the mucous drainage, and help decrease the urge to cough. Make sure there is no antihistamine in the cough medicine.