Therapy vocal and nasal sounds: effects on hyperfunctional dysphonia

ABSTRACT

We sought to verify the effects of a phonotherapy program that included vocal and postural orientation, adequacy of respiratory function and the technique of nasal sounds in hyperfunctional dysphonia. We carried out a clinical case, observational, longitudinal, non-controlled study with quantitative approach that analyzed three female subjects with mean age of 31.33 years who presented hyperfunctional dysphonia. The subjects were submitted to: laryngoscopy, vocal, perceptive-auditory and acoustic assessments, collection of maximum phonation time, postural screening and determination of the respiratory tract during speech before and after a therapeutic program which consisted of orientation, awareness and vocal training with nasal sounds during 16 speech therapy sessions, once a week with training at home. The data were analyzed by using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney and Chi-square, with 5% significance level. Post-therapy, we observed that the posture passed from aligned and misaligned and the respiratory type from the upper to the costodiaphragmatic-abdominal; there was a decrease of the acoustic measurements in relation to the degree and to the number of subharmonics in most subjects, besides tissue improvements and reduction of edema in the mucosa of the vocal folds and arytenoid region, as well as glottal closure improvement. After performing the phonotherapy program with vocal and postural orientation, adequacy of respiratory function and use of the technique of nasal sounds in hyperfunctional dysphonia, we observed significant improvement in body posture, the respiratory tract, the acoustic measurements suggestive of noise to vocal emission and positive effects on the tissue and the closure of the vocal folds.

Keywords:
Health Evaluation; Voice Disorders; Diagnosis; Voice Training; Voice