This post is also available in: العربية
Hoarseness of voice
Written By: Dr Ibrahim Issa MD. Otolaryngology Consultant , Laryngologist & Phonosurgeon
While voice is defined as producing sounds, hoarseness of voice is defined as the difficulty of making sound, the difficulty of making normal voice might be variable and change from patient to patient according to the level of excellence he/she needs to perform his/her functional, or professional voice. The “normal” voice for an office worker who doesn’t have any singing or lecturing interests for example is different from the normal voice for an opera singer who needs to sing through and wide range of pitches, the (normal) voice for adults is different from the (normal) voice for children, and the (normal) voice for a female is different from the (normal) voice for a male. Abnormal voice could be weak, breathy, and scratchy, husky in some pitches, or the range of speaking pitches could be abnormally accepted by the person or by the people around him/her.
It’s important to differentiate between the voice and the speech, while the first is the sound produced by the vocal cord, the later is the sound produced by the vocal cords after being manipulated and changed by the throat, mouth, nose, sinuses, and tongue. So it should be clear that a speech problem might be related to any of the structures needed for speech development while a voice problem is related solely to a vocal cord problem.
I have finished my fellowship training in voice disorders and laryngology under the supervision of Dr James Thomas in Portland, USA, and I took his permission to link this website to his website (www.voicedoctor.net) that discusses voice problems in a detailed and professional way. In the soon future I will start translating parts of the articles in his website to Arabic to help spread the knowledge about voice problems more among Arab communities.
Written By: Dr Ibrahim Issa MD. Otolaryngology Consultant , Laryngologist & Phonosurgeon
