Basics of voice dysfunction--etiology and prevention of voice damage

Voice is one of the most important means of communication and as such should be taken care of. The etiology of voice disorders is diverse. Due to the development of the society we live in, way of life, environmental factors, and exposure to pharmacological agents as well as demands we make towards our voice, there is a substantial growth in the number of people with voice disorders. We tasked ourselves to find out if it is possible to enlighten people on the importance of voice, to motivate them to take care of it, to notice the changes in its quality and eventually ask for help. We assessed in which measure do we understand the importance of a healthy voice, and do we know which is the most important factor that adds to its decline. For a long number of years voice therapists and other experts in the voice disorder field have been discussing the optimal voice impostation as well as vocal exercises and methods behind voice recovery. They have all come to the same conclusion that phonation is dependant on the sort of the voice disorder and the patient motivation. We wanted to go one step further and investigate, dependence of voice quality and the damage etiology (organic - functional), which are the predominant causes, what are the factors that account for the damage and how the disorder motivates the patient and therefore influences the rehabilitation success rate.