Voice overuse is when people strain their voice through overuse, which might cause some negative effects on their speaking function. Before voice overuse can be treated, it is important to know the reasons why the voice overuse happened. When symptoms occur, seeing a general practitioner or an otolaryngologist is necessary.
Voice overuse means when people overuse their voice in an inappropriate way, which not only prevents their normal speaking function, but also brings structural changes of the vocal folds in order of that to either acute or chronic symptoms such as hoarseness, loss of voice and laryngeal inflammation.
Many people use their voice for work. For example, singers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, sales persons, and public speakers are among those who make great demands on their voices. This puts them at risk for developing voice problems. Besides, there are also some common situations that are associated with voice overuse such as: 1) speaking in noisy environment, 2) using cell phone or telephone excessively, 3) speaking with a pitch that is not appropriate, and 4) not using amplification when speaking in public. Our voice is produced by vibration of the vocal folds, which are two bands of smooth muscle tissue in the larynx. The larynx is located between the base of the tongue and the top of the trachea, which is the passageway to the lungs. Once we use an inappropriate way to speak for too long, it might increase vocal effort and lead to vocal fatigue, hoarseness, vocal cord lesions or hemorrhage and even laryngeal inflammation (laryngitis). If the vocal folds are overstrained for a long time (chronic), vocal fold nodules may occur and leading to permanent hoarseness, foreign body sensation and excessive hawking.
Here are some tips for keeping a healthy voice: 1) drinking water regularly, 2) no smoking, 3) not abusing or overusing the voice in an inappropriate way, 4) minimizing throat clearing, 5) moderating voice use when sick. If the affected person already has the symptoms of voice overuse, which affects his daily life, then he should look for a general practitioner or an otolaryngologist for help.
Several years of work in academia, medical practice and finally commercialization make it possible to provide an end-to-end process to help users to “find the appropriate medical help based on their present symptoms”. Below you will find a short explanation, showing you which part of the platform will help you best in finding the appropriate medical support.
Proceed as follows to enter your current symptoms.
Click on the appropriate body part on the picture. Select one/multiple symptoms corresponding to your complaint.
You can also add symptoms by typing your medical complaint in the search box and selecting the best matching suggestion.
Note: Your information will be kept anonymously.
Once you have selected all applicable symptoms, click the “analyze disease pattern”-button.
Accordingly, you will get a list of possible diseases and matching doctor categories who can further help you.
You can inform yourself about the possible diseases by reading the related information. But you can also return to the previous step and add more symptoms or delete already added ones to further narrow down your disease pattern.
Click on the desired doctor category to find a doctor who can help you.
If you are logged in with your profile, you will be displayed the appropriate doctors in your area. Otherwise you can enter an address in the “address” field and you will be displayed a doctor’s list around that specified address.
You will receive further information about the displayed doctors when you press on “details”.
Online bookable doctors in your area will be indicated with the notation “Book appointment” or “Book externally”, additionally they will be displayed on top of the list for your convenience.
Click on “Book appointment” to start the online appointment booking process with the desired doctor.
Please select an available appointment. “Green“ appointments are booked directly. “Red“ appointments need to be confirmed by the doctor.
Enter your general personal and health information.
Enter your present medical symptoms.
Enter your mobile phone number to identify yourself and you can finalize the appointment booking.
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