Voice Disorders

Voice disorders are quite common and afflict many singers, actors, teachers as well as other individuals who routinely use their voice throughout the day. If voice problems persist longer than one to two weeks or are recurrent then evaluation by a head and neck specialist is prudent as this may herald a more serious medical condition.  Voice disorders will cause changes in your voice such as hoarseness, changes in the pitch and quality of your voice, vocal fatigue, pressured or broken speech, chronic throat clearing and a myriad of other symptoms. These symptoms may reflect more serious conditions such as laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), vocal cord nodules, vocal cord cysts/polyps, benign or malignant tumors of the larynx, hemorrhage, laryngitis or various neurologic conditions affecting the vocal cords.

Dr. Alen Cohen and Dr. Jerome Vener, practicing in West Hills and Calabasas, will obtain a thorough history and then perform various diagnostic procedures in the office to arrive at a definitive diagnosis that may be causing your particular symptoms. Often this workup includes in-office laryngoscopy and stroboscopy, which is a detailed evaluation of your voice-box (larynx) as well as its speech production to arrive at a diagnosis. This is a procedure where a flexible camera is gently slid through the nose and down the throat to look at the vocal cords. These procedures are performed with particular attention to minimize any discomfort to you.  Most patients are surprised at how quick and simple this procedure is when done by the experienced physicians at C/V.