How to Get Your Voice Back Quickly When You Have Laryngitis

Resting your voice, gargling with salt water, using a humidifier, and drinking warm beverages may help soothe your larynx and restore your voice.

Voice loss is often due to acute laryngitis. Laryngitis occurs when your larynx (voice box) becomes irritated and inflamed. Most cases of laryngitis are caused by viral infections, like the common cold.

You can also irritate your voice box when you overuse your voice — like when yelling at a sports game or concert — or from exposure to environmental irritants like pollution and smoke.

Inflammation of the voice box

Your voice box contains your vocal cords. When you talk, your vocal cords open and close smoothly. As air passes through them, they vibrate to make sounds.

When your vocal cords are swollen or inflamed, your voice becomes distorted and may sound hoarse, raspy, or become too quiet to hear.

Laryngitis typically heals on its own and lasts less than 3 or 4 weeks. However, it can sometimes become chronic (long-lasting).

Treating laryngitis and getting your voice back involves treating the inflammation and irritation in your voice box.

Here are some methods to try.

1. Rest your voice

Resting your voice is the single most important factor in healing laryngitis. Irritation and inflammation need time to resolve, and avoiding using your voice at all gives your vocal cords the chance to recover.

Try not to talk at all for a day or so, and if you must talk, do so quietly.

2. Don’t whisper

You might be surprised to learn that whispering can make laryngitis worse, and you should avoid doing it when your voice is hoarse.

When you whisper, your vocal cords are pulled tight and are unable to vibrate, which puts extra strain on them. Instead of whispering, use a “confidential voice,” or a natural voice at a low volume.

3. Talk with a doctor about medication

Corticosteroids are prescription medications that help reduce inflammation. If you’re someone whose work depends on your ability to talk or sing, your doctor may consider giving you a short course of steroids to speed up healing.

However, corticosteroids have risks and should not be routinely prescribed. They may not be suitable for everyone,

4. Drink warm liquids

Drinking plenty of fluids is always recommended when you’re healing from laryngitis. Laryngitis is most often caused by a viral infection, so resting and drinking plenty of fluids will help you heal as quickly as possible.

Warm liquids like tea, broth, or soup may help soothe your irritated throat, keep your airways moisturized, and thin out mucus. Try drinking around 60 ounces per day.

Avoid caffeinated drinks like coffee and black tea, as they can lead to dehydration. If skipping your morning coffee is out of the question, be sure to replenish your fluids with water or herbal tea.

5. Gargle salt water

Gargling warm salt water may help treat laryngitis by keeping your throat moist. It can also kill any bacteria.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt to a glass of warm water and try gargling two or three times per day until your voice returns.

6. Suck on a lozenge

Sucking on a throat lozenge increases your saliva production, which can help keep your throat moist.

Try a lozenge containing honey, which has natural antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.

7. Take a hot shower

The steam from a hot shower can help moisten your vocal cords and soothe your throat.

Inhaling warm steam by taking a hot shower or bath several times a day may help reduce hoarseness and clear the vocal cords of sticky secretions that cause laryngitis symptoms.

8. Get a humidifier

Inhaling humidified steam can keep your upper airways moisturized and remove secretions around your vocal cords that cause you to lose your voice.

Try using a humidifier throughout the day and while you sleep when experiencing laryngitis symptoms.

9.

Avoid smoking

If you’re a regular smoker or vaper, try taking a few days off. Smoking is commonly linked to throat inflammation, so anyone healing from laryngitis should avoid smoking and stay out of smoky environments.

If you’re unable to quit nicotine right away, consider using a nicotine patch or other smoking cessation aid.

10. Avoid alcohol

Alcohol is an irritant that can dry out your throat, which could exacerbate laryngitis symptoms.

Drinking alcohol may delay healing, so avoiding it is recommended when you’re trying to get your voice back.

Laryngitis doesn’t typically require treatment. It’s often caused by a viral infection, so antibiotics won’t help. Symptoms typically clear up on their own within 3 to 7 days.

If you’re someone whose job depends on your voice, however, your doctor may be willing to prescribe corticosteroids to decrease inflammation.

If your laryngitis symptoms last longer than 2 weeks, or if your symptoms are very painful and you have trouble swallowing, you should see a doctor. You may have chronic laryngitis or laryngitis caused by acid reflux.

Your doctor can perform a physical exam and recommend a specialist if necessary.

Laryngitis – Diagnosis & treatment

Diagnosis

The most common sign of laryngitis is hoarseness. Changes in your voice can vary with the degree of infection or irritation, ranging from mild hoarseness to almost total loss of your voice. If you have chronic hoarseness, your doctor may review your medical history and symptoms. He or she may want to listen to your voice and examine your vocal cords, and he or she may refer you to an ear, nose and throat specialist.

These techniques sometimes are used to help diagnose laryngitis:

• Laryngoscopy. In a procedure called laryngoscopy, your doctor can visually examine your vocal cords by using a light and a tiny mirror to look into the back of your throat. Or your doctor may use fiber-optic laryngoscopy. This involves inserting a thin, flexible tube (endoscope) with a tiny camera and light through your nose or mouth and into the back of your throat. Then your doctor can watch the motion of your vocal cords as you speak.
• Biopsy. If your doctor sees a suspicious area, he or she may do a biopsy — taking a sample of tissue for examination under a microscope.

More Information

Treatment

Acute laryngitis often gets better on its own within a week or so. Self-care measures, such as voice rest, drinking fluids and humidifying your air, also can help improve symptoms.

Chronic laryngitis treatments are aimed at treating the underlying causes, such as heartburn, smoking or excessive use of alcohol.

Medications used in some cases include:

• Antibiotics. In almost all cases of laryngitis, an antibiotic won’t do any good because the cause is usually viral. But if you have a bacterial infection, your doctor may recommend an antibiotic.
• Corticosteroids. Sometimes, corticosteroids can help reduce vocal cord inflammation. However, this treatment is used only when there’s an urgent need to treat laryngitis — such as in some cases when a toddler has laryngitis associated with croup.

You may also have voice therapy to learn to lessen behaviors that worsen your voice.

In some cases, you may need surgery.

Clinical trials

Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.

Self care

Some self-care methods and home treatments may relieve the symptoms of laryngitis and reduce strain on your voice:

• Breathe moist air. Use a humidifier to keep the air throughout your home or office moist. Inhale steam from a bowl of hot water or a hot shower.
• Rest your voice as much as possible. Avoid talking or singing too loudly or for too long. If you need to speak before large groups, try to use a microphone or megaphone.
• Drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration (avoid alcohol and caffeine).
• Moisten your throat. Try sucking on lozenges, gargling with salt water or chewing a piece of gum.
• Avoid decongestants. These medications can dry out your throat.
• Avoid whispering. This puts even more strain on your voice than normal speech does.

Preparing for your appointment

You’re likely to start by seeing your family doctor or a pediatrician. You may be referred to a doctor trained in ear, nose and throat disorders.

Here’s some information to help you get ready for your appointment, and to know what to expect from your doctor.

What you can do

• Be aware of any pre-appointment restrictions. When you make the appointment, ask if there’s anything you need to do in advance.
• Write down any symptoms you’re experiencing, including any that may seem unrelated to the reason for which you scheduled the appointment.
• Write down key personal information, including major stresses or recent life changes.
• Make a list of all medications, vitamins and supplements you’re taking.
• Take a family member or friend along, if possible. Someone who accompanies you may remember information you missed or forgot.
• Write down questions to ask your doctor.

Preparing a list of questions will help you make the most of your time with your doctor. For laryngitis, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:

• What is likely causing my symptoms or condition?
• What are other possible causes?
• What tests do I need, if any?
• Is my condition likely temporary or chronic?
• What is the best course of action?
• What are the alternatives to the primary approach you’re suggesting?
• I have other health conditions. How can I best manage them together?
• Are there any restrictions I need to follow?
• Should I see a subspecialist?
• Is there a generic alternative to the medicine you’re prescribing?
• Are there brochures or other printed material I can take home? What websites do you recommend?

Don’t hesitate to ask any other questions.

What to expect from your doctor

Your doctor is likely to ask you a number of questions, such as:

• When did you begin experiencing symptoms?
• Have your symptoms been continuous or occasional?
• How severe are your symptoms?
• What, if anything, seems to improve your symptoms?
• What, if anything, appears to worsen your symptoms?
• Do you smoke?
• Do you drink alcohol?
• Do you have allergies? Have you recently had a cold?
• Have you recently overused your vocal cords, such as by singing or shouting?

Silence involuntarily. How to help if the voice is gone

No matter how much we want to be understood from a half-word or without words at all, without a voice, the effectiveness of communication is significantly reduced. If hoarseness, hoarseness and other malfunctions of the vocal cords appear, then measures must be taken.

The first and simplest recommendation, if a person is hoarse, hoarse, or there is no voice at all – be silent. Compliance with the voice mode is a necessary measure, this reduces the load on the ligaments and gives them the opportunity to recover. But this alone is not enough – after all, there may be several reasons that the voice has disappeared. And only a doctor can find out.

Cause and effect

A person who has lost his voice has two ways – to an ENT doctor or a phoniatrist. The first will help diagnose laryngitis of viral or bacterial origin, the second – fatigue of the ligaments or overload of the vocal apparatus.

The last option is most often found among those for whom speech is a working tool. These are teachers, lecturers, artists, singers and – a sign of today – sales managers. Often in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, people do not pay attention to the first signs of a problem – voice fatigue, hoarseness or hoarseness, and as a result – an untreated disease, relapses and its transition to a chronic form. The situation is aggravated by the combination of an increased load on the voice with unfavorable external and internal factors.

On all fronts

If the main cause of voice loss is laryngitis, then treatment should be approached comprehensively. Sanitation of the nasal and oral cavity, the use of antibacterial drugs and anti-inflammatory drugs can be supplemented with physiotherapy, and voice gymnastics will not hurt either.

At home, on the recommendation of a doctor, from the first days you can take Homeovox – this drug was developed specifically for the treatment of laryngitis and hoarseness. It can be combined with anti-cold and antitussive drugs, remedies for sore throat. Doctors and patients notice an improvement in voice quality (sonority, sonority) already in the first days of taking Homeovox.

Hot-cold

Even without apparent reasons or a serious illness, you can remain without a voice for a while. Hoarseness and hoarseness can be provoked by sudden temperature fluctuations, dry or polluted air, hot or spicy food, and cigarette smoke. In the heat, for example, very cold drinks or an air conditioner running at full power can cause voice loss.

On the contrary, drinking a sufficient amount of liquid, proper sleep, correct posture, clean humidified air have a positive effect on the vocal cords.

The voice is such a familiar “tool” for communication that we realize its importance only when there are difficulties in work, study and everyday life. Therefore, there is no need to wait for the situation to worsen, it is necessary to start treatment from the first days of the appearance of hoarseness or hoarseness. And the sooner you take action, the sooner you will be heard again.

what can and cannot be done to restore it

1. Which organs are involved in the formation of the voice
2. Causes of loss of voice
3. What else can cause loss of voice
4. If the singer lost his voice
5. How diagnostics work
6. How to restore voice
7. What methods will help alleviate the condition and return the voice
8. What is forbidden to do

Image by user18526052 on Freepik

For some, a temporary loss of voice is a nuisance, for others it is a real disaster. Violation can be expressed by changes in the properties of the voice (hoarseness, hoarseness, lowering the timbre). This state is called dysphonia . Loss of voice, in which it is almost impossible to speak, is called aphonia . What causes the voice to disappear, and what to do if this happens?

What organs are involved in the formation of the voice

The voice is produced by the vocal cords and laryngeal muscles: the ligaments vibrate under the influence of an air stream, forming a sound impulse. The sound produced by the ligaments resonates in the trachea, bronchi and sinuses.

The oral cavity, tongue, facial muscles are responsible for the articulation and distinctness of speech: if the articulatory apparatus is poorly developed, the voice will sound weak and slurred.

Damage or abnormalities in the physiology of any of these areas can lead to voice loss. The onset of pathological changes may be indicated by pain, sensation of a foreign object, sore throat.

Reasons for losing voice

Most often, the voice disappears as a result of a neglected respiratory disease. Laryngitis, tracheitis, pharyngitis often lead to mild disorders. If the disease is severe, aphonia may occur.
Loss of voice in this case is hypotonic or hypertonic in nature:

• with hypotonicity of the ligaments, the voice becomes weak, there is pain in the neck and neck;
• with hypertonicity, the ligaments spasmodically close, the voice coarsens, is severely distorted or completely disappears.

Organic disorders that occur due to chronic inflammation or anatomical changes in the structure of the vocal apparatus can also cause aphonia. These include paresis of the larynx, paralysis, anartria, dysarthria. For people with similar pathologies, a hoarse and hoarse voice is characteristic.

If there are no pathologies, then the loss of voice is most likely due to functional disorders. The dysfunction may be central or peripheral.

Often the reason lies in psychosomatics. This is called psychogenic aphonia. It can be recognized by one feature: uncontrolled sounds (laughter, coughing) appear normally, but a person cannot reproduce normal speech. This condition is typical for people with a hysterical psychotype of personality.

Why Peripheral Disorders Occur:

• respiratory diseases;
• failure of the endocrine system;
• features of mental reactions
• increased load on the ligaments.

Phonasthenia – weak closure of the ligaments – occurs due to an increased load on the vocal apparatus. With a mild form, a person cannot control the timbre, pitch or strength of the voice, with an acute one, the voice disappears.

This condition is typical for vocalists, speakers, teachers – those who use their voice a lot and often to speak in public.

Very often, phonasthenia is the result of incorrect voice setting or its absence. Therefore, people for whom the voice is a working tool should not neglect vocal lessons or speech techniques.
With functional and organic disorders, similar symptoms are observed: thickening and inflammation of the vocal cords, partial or complete loss of voice. This complicates the diagnosis and prolongs the treatment period.

What else can cause loss of voice

1. Overload. Tears, hysteria, screaming lead to torn ligaments. For this reason, the voice is temporarily lost. Usually the condition goes away on its own.
2. Inflammation of the larynx. Due to untreated infections, inflammation spreads to the vocal apparatus.
3. Nodules on the vocal cords . They arise due to professional reasons (wrong voice setting), tears due to coughing.
4. Epiglottitis . A viral disease that causes inflammation of the vocal cords and epiglottis.
5. Papillomatosis. Benign tumors on the walls of the larynx. The disease is rare and is treated surgically.
6. Cyst. Appears against the background of a cough or inflammation due to blockage of the glands. Pathology is characterized by a sensation of a foreign object in the throat. At first the voice becomes hoarse, then completely disappears.

If the singer lost his voice

Aphonia becomes the biggest problem for vocalists and speakers, whose activities are directly related to the voice. Many singers experience this condition due to incorrect voice production.

Proper vocal technique involves sound extraction, which is based on breathing and resonating the voice. In this case, the ligaments are practically not involved. Wrong technique, its absence is dangerous for the vocalist by increased load on the vocal apparatus. While singing, the singer strengthens the voice by compressing the muscles of the larynx, increasing pressure on the ligaments. Over time, nodules and seals form on them. This leads to a partial or complete loss of voice, and sometimes it is impossible to restore it without the help of a doctor.

What rules do vocalists follow to preserve their voices:

• do not sing in the morning, as the vocal apparatus “wakes up” only at lunchtime, and in the morning it is contraindicated to exercise;
• do not load the ligaments in case of respiratory or infectious diseases;
• do breathing exercises, which relieve spasms not only from the vocal apparatus, but also from other functional systems of the body;
• do not overcool, so as not to provoke clamping of the larynx;
• get enough sleep: when overworked, the ligaments are at increased risk.

The voice is a fragile instrument, so it is important to pay attention to any changes in it and reduce the load on the vocal cords if necessary.

Diagnosis procedure

If you lose your voice, you should contact a therapist for an initial examination. After collecting an anamnesis and conducting an examination, he will redirect to a specialized specialist: a phoniatrist, an otolaryngologist, a speech therapist or a neurologist.

The following are used for testing:

• examination of the larynx for inflammatory processes or physiological abnormalities;
• electromyography to check the muscular functions of the larynx;
• laryngastroboscopy – examination of the larynx and ligaments using an electronic stroboscope allows you to assess their mobility, the nature of the oscillations;
• MSCT, X-ray – are prescribed for suspected neoplasms in the larynx;
• glottography – study of phonation of the larynx during muscle contractions;
• speech therapy examination – analysis of sound parameters of voice, breathing, history taking.

How to restore voice

In the issue of voice restoration, competent and complete diagnosis is important, since depending on the cause of the violation, different methods of treatment are required.

In case of functional disorders, it is prescribed:

• general strengthening and restoration of the body;
• manual therapy;
• physiotherapy;
• LFK.