Diagnosis of Functional Dysphonia
When functional dysphonia is caused by functional factors, the vocal folds appear normal on laryngoscope or laryngeal stroboscopy.
The outer laryngeal muscles are excessively used to make a sound, and the larynx elevates.
In organic factors, you can notice the abnormalities in the mucous membrane or the underdevelopment of the larynx and the vocal folds.
Symptoms of Functional Dysphonia
Mutational falsetto under a normal laryngeal system causes the voice to be high-pitched, weak, and thin like the voice of a female.
The voice is easily fatigued, and difficult to sing.
The voice tone stays high, monopitched and it is difficult to make low-pitches.
High-pitched songs cannot be sung. It can be classified by two different factors.
Functional factor
Most of the functional factors are caused by psychological problems. Young males of pubertal age fail to accept their adult role or suffer emotional stress from the changes of adolescence and raise their sounding pitch.
Organic factors
Most of the organic factors are caused by the abnormality in the vocal membrane. Contractions or scars in the mucosal membrane or the underdevelopment of the larynx cause the focal folds structure to become like a female’s.
Functional Dysphonia Treatment
When functional dysphonia is caused by functional factors, it can be treated through the voice therapies or speech therapies.
However, as it requires long-term training period, nowadays Botulinum Toxin is injected first in the pitch-raising muscle then proceed
with voice therapies when the pitch is intentionally dropped so the right phonatory pattern can be learned.
This treatment method can save the treatment time and recover the voice to be healthy
When functional dysphonia is caused by organic factor then according to the symptom Percutaneous
injection laryngoplasty, PDL laser surgery or thyroplasty (type 3) could be performed to treat the disease.
Treatment videos