charlene
03-24-2008, 08:31 PM
Examining the voice of experience
Why do our voices 'sag' when we age? Is there such a thing as plastic surgery for vocal cords?
Mar 23, 2008 04:30 AM
Patricia Hluchy
Toronto Star
When a person hits old age, their vocal apparatus – like their eyes, ears and the rest of their body – gets worn out. In order to speak, we expel air from the lungs. It passes through the vocal folds (or cords), which are ligaments in the larynx (or voice box), causing them to vibrate, which in turn causes sound.
And when the vocal folds start to go, the voice (to varying degrees) sounds breathier, weaker, higher or huskier.
"The voice changes I frequently see are related to the change in vocal fold tissue from aging," says Dr. Jennifer Anderson, director of the voice disorders clinic at St. Michael's Hospital. "First, there is a general loss of muscle with aging, and this can make the vocal folds thinner. Also, the elastic fibres in the vocal folds become cross-linked, which means they do not have the same recoil or elasticity they used to during vibration. Most people complain that their voice becomes unreliable and easily gets tired with prolonged speaking if this age change is significant.
"This is most often seen as bowing of the vocal folds – the vocal folds are thinner and do not fully close during vocalization – and is more common in the 70s and 80s."
Dr. Tim Bressmann, a professor in the department of speech-language pathology at the University of Toronto, notes that the time of onset and degree of voice change in old age are highly variable.
"Think about it like skin aging, for instance. Some people get wrinkles and sagging skin a lot earlier than other people who look just a little bit more buff into an older age."
How you used your voice earlier can also affect the way it ages.
"If you were a good track-and-field runner when you were 15," says Bressmann, "you'll probably still be in pretty good shape later in life if you keep it up to some extent. In the same way, if somebody was a trained speaker or a gifted singer, some of that will likely stick with him or her.
"Older singers will keep their musical ear and will be able to keep some of their pipes. They will not have the whole range, the dynamic range, as well as the pitch range. Usually the voice drops a bit at the high end and comes up a bit at the low end of the vocal range."
Both genders can get what voice pathologists call the presbyphonic falsetto, a geriatric voice with high pitch. Bressmann says that can arise when an elderly person tries to compensate for looser vocal folds that allow air to escape – hence a breathy voice – by stretching and pressing the folds together.
Indeed, Bressmann says that, in general, there aren't drastic differences between the way old men's and women's voices change: Both tend to get higher pitched and breathier.
Lifestyle can also affect how the voice ages. Smoking can irritate the vocal folds and, says Anderson, leave women with dramatically lowered pitch (to the point that they can sound like men when speaking).
Just as those wishing to look younger can plump up their faces with Botox and fillers or lift them surgically, they can now also get their voices rejuvenated.
St. Michael's'Anderson says an individual whose voice has been substantially weakened by bowing of the vocal folds can get a thyroplasty: A plastic shim is inserted beneath a vocal fold to increase its thickness. (The injection of collagen can have the same results, but they're temporary, and the voice can end up being hoarser.)
Anderson has performed the thyroplasty surgery to rehabilitate the voices of a priest, a surgeon and a politician, all of whom wanted to sound louder and less fatigued. But she says it's preferable to try to improve the voice through speech therapy. (The only procedure Anderson performs for "aesthetic" reasons is a pitch alteration for transsexuals.)
According to some reports from the United States, the "voice lift" is a small but growing form of plastic surgery.
So, in years to come, when someone asks, "Do you think she's had any work done," the question may not be about taut skin at all, but rather taut vocal delivery.
Why do our voices 'sag' when we age? Is there such a thing as plastic surgery for vocal cords?
Mar 23, 2008 04:30 AM
Patricia Hluchy
Toronto Star
When a person hits old age, their vocal apparatus – like their eyes, ears and the rest of their body – gets worn out. In order to speak, we expel air from the lungs. It passes through the vocal folds (or cords), which are ligaments in the larynx (or voice box), causing them to vibrate, which in turn causes sound.
And when the vocal folds start to go, the voice (to varying degrees) sounds breathier, weaker, higher or huskier.
"The voice changes I frequently see are related to the change in vocal fold tissue from aging," says Dr. Jennifer Anderson, director of the voice disorders clinic at St. Michael's Hospital. "First, there is a general loss of muscle with aging, and this can make the vocal folds thinner. Also, the elastic fibres in the vocal folds become cross-linked, which means they do not have the same recoil or elasticity they used to during vibration. Most people complain that their voice becomes unreliable and easily gets tired with prolonged speaking if this age change is significant.
"This is most often seen as bowing of the vocal folds – the vocal folds are thinner and do not fully close during vocalization – and is more common in the 70s and 80s."
Dr. Tim Bressmann, a professor in the department of speech-language pathology at the University of Toronto, notes that the time of onset and degree of voice change in old age are highly variable.
"Think about it like skin aging, for instance. Some people get wrinkles and sagging skin a lot earlier than other people who look just a little bit more buff into an older age."
How you used your voice earlier can also affect the way it ages.
"If you were a good track-and-field runner when you were 15," says Bressmann, "you'll probably still be in pretty good shape later in life if you keep it up to some extent. In the same way, if somebody was a trained speaker or a gifted singer, some of that will likely stick with him or her.
"Older singers will keep their musical ear and will be able to keep some of their pipes. They will not have the whole range, the dynamic range, as well as the pitch range. Usually the voice drops a bit at the high end and comes up a bit at the low end of the vocal range."
Both genders can get what voice pathologists call the presbyphonic falsetto, a geriatric voice with high pitch. Bressmann says that can arise when an elderly person tries to compensate for looser vocal folds that allow air to escape – hence a breathy voice – by stretching and pressing the folds together.
Indeed, Bressmann says that, in general, there aren't drastic differences between the way old men's and women's voices change: Both tend to get higher pitched and breathier.
Lifestyle can also affect how the voice ages. Smoking can irritate the vocal folds and, says Anderson, leave women with dramatically lowered pitch (to the point that they can sound like men when speaking).
Just as those wishing to look younger can plump up their faces with Botox and fillers or lift them surgically, they can now also get their voices rejuvenated.
St. Michael's'Anderson says an individual whose voice has been substantially weakened by bowing of the vocal folds can get a thyroplasty: A plastic shim is inserted beneath a vocal fold to increase its thickness. (The injection of collagen can have the same results, but they're temporary, and the voice can end up being hoarser.)
Anderson has performed the thyroplasty surgery to rehabilitate the voices of a priest, a surgeon and a politician, all of whom wanted to sound louder and less fatigued. But she says it's preferable to try to improve the voice through speech therapy. (The only procedure Anderson performs for "aesthetic" reasons is a pitch alteration for transsexuals.)
According to some reports from the United States, the "voice lift" is a small but growing form of plastic surgery.
So, in years to come, when someone asks, "Do you think she's had any work done," the question may not be about taut skin at all, but rather taut vocal delivery.