Abstract
Profound associations are found between the features of hoarseness and glottal configurations in both organic and functional dysphonia. Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) type I with glottal chink and aphonia, and MTD type II-IV with supra-glottic contraction and rough hoarseness belong to major subtypes of functional dysphonia. Although these disorders could be diagnosed on the basis of these findings, the addition of voice therapy techniques improved the diagnosis. Generally, voice therapies are conducted by speech therapists and are unfamiliar to otolaryngologists; however, it may be beneficial to the diagnosis to perform simple voice therapies by laryngologists in person during the consultation of outpatients. We introduced two simple techniques : throat clearing and hamming, and were able to demonstrate the immediate effectiveness of hamming on vocal and laryngeal findings against subjects with MTD type II-IV findings, which were performed by a single laryngologist. In conclusion, the usefulness of tentative voice therapy conducted by a laryngologist was proved.
