The Johns Hopkins Voice Center
Our center treats a wide variety of voice conditions using the latest surgical, nonsurgical and in-office treatment techniques.
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Meet Our Specialists
Meet our team of laryngologists and speech language pathologists dedicated to working with patients suffering from voice, swallowing or airway disorders.
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Gender Affirming Voice Care
The Johns Hopkins Voice Center offers interdisciplinary evaluation and interventional voice services. Find more about our gender affirming voice care.
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Patient Stories
Patients share their experience receiving care from our center.
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Our Approach to Dysphonia
If your voice is not sounding or working as it should, you might have dysphonia. There are many different causes of dysphonia, from vocal cord paralysis to growths or lesions on a vocal cord. Our Voice Center team offers expertise in diagnosis and treatment of spasmodic and muscle tension dysphonia.
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Your treatment will begin with a thorough evaluation by a laryngologist and review of your medical history. A detailed voice history helps us understand the impact of the voice difficulties on your life, and also helps us assess the potential cause of your voice problems.
Our laryngologist will perform a stroboscopy, an examination of your vocal cords as they vibrate. This test is performed only at specialized voice centers. It helps us understand your vocal cord function as we identify the cause of dysphonia.
Depending on the results of stroboscopy, you may need additional tests, which may include CT scans, MRI scans, or Modified Barium Swallow evaluations.
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Your personalized dysphonia treatment plan is based on your diagnosis. The plan may include:
- Vocal Cord Augmentation (injection of a filler): Injecting a filler can make a vocal cord thicker, which can help correct voice problems related to incomplete vocal cord closure. Our laryngologists are specialists in in-office vocal cord injections, although sometimes a patient may need to have this procedure performed in the operating room.
- Botulinum toxin injection: Botulinum toxin is injected during an office visit to weaken the muscles around the vocal cords, which helps stop involuntary spasms or tremors interfering with voice production.
- Vocal cord surgery: If there is a growth on the vocal cords interfering with voice, surgical removal of the growth (microlaryngeal phonosurgery) can help restore vocal cord function, as well as help diagnose the growth. Surgeons must carefully remove the growth while preserving normal vocal cord vibration, so that the voice improves as much as possible. Our laryngologists are all specially trained in vocal cord surgery.
- Voice Therapy: Voice therapy can help you develop habits to keep your vocal cords healthy and can teach you approaches to using your muscles efficiently as you speak or sing.
- Medication: If your voice problems are related to infection, reflux, or allergy, antibiotics, reflux medication, or allergy medication may help.
- Vocal Cord Augmentation (injection of a filler): Injecting a filler can make a vocal cord thicker, which can help correct voice problems related to incomplete vocal cord closure. Our laryngologists are specialists in in-office vocal cord injections, although sometimes a patient may need to have this procedure performed in the operating room.
Diagnosing and Treating Voice Disorders: Johns Hopkins Voice Center | Q&A
Director of the Johns Hopkins Voice Center, Dr. Lee Akst, answers questions about voice disorders, when it is time to see a voice specialist and what to expect when you do.
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