It is called phoniatric osteopathy and helps to overcome problems related to the excessive use of the voice as happens with singers, teachers, speakers, speakers and politicians. Also very useful for language problems that affect children such as stuttering, rhotacisms or sigmatisms.
Conditions such as recurrent loss of voice, absence of voice upon waking, feeling of a lump in the throat, dryness of the mucous membranes, or a croaky voice and hoarseness may be due to the presence of tension in the jaw, the floor of the mouth and around the neck
They often occur together with vocal cord pathologies such as nodules, other times they can depend on excessive use of the voice, which leads to strong muscle tension and stiffness of the joints with loss of flexibility and correct function of the larynx. This is the case that most frequently affects so-called voice professionals, such as singers, teachers, actors, speakers, politicians or radio speakers.
What is phoniatric osteopathy
For all these problems, phoniatric osteopathy can be of great help. «It is nothing other than the application of the principles of osteopathy to voice problems which can be sound and sound articulation disorders» explains Valentina Carlile, a phoniatric osteopath who works in Milan. (Find out here what osteopathy is and what it is used for)
A visit to the ENT specialist is essential
A visit to an ENT specialist is needed first to understand if there are any organic pathologies. If they aren't there we can intervene.
Very useful for singers, but also for teachers and speakers
Prevention is very important here. A singer may be subjected to heavy use of his voice, for example when he is on tour. Workloads can be high and therefore he can become fatigued and sometimes needs manipulation to prevent the larynx from overloading.
Many useful for children with stuttering, rhotacisms or sigmatisms
«The same practices can be used to help children with problems such as stuttering, rhotacisms (difficulty with the r consonant), sigmatisms (difficulty with the esse consonant). These difficulties can also be caused by postural problems of the larynx, the spine (which then reflect on the larynx) or by overloading the neck muscle. Some types of stuttering are related to the physical rigidities that these children have."
We work together with speech therapists
We work in synergy with speech therapists, who train the gesture for pronunciation, while we ensure that the larynx is functional so that we can assimilate that gesture in the best possible way. We take care of the hardware, the speech therapist takes care of the software.
The change of voice in adolescence
During the vocal change typical of adolescence, there may be problems with aphonia, because there are particular tensions on the column. Releasing these vocal dysfunctions is very important.
What happens during a visit to the phoniatric osteopath
The visit is completely similar to that of a classic osteopath. Then an osteopathic evaluation to check how the spine is, if there are somatic dysfunctions. Then we focus on the functionality and mobility of the larynx. Finally, any dysfunctions are corrected with manipulations.
The entry cannot be changed
It can't help change your voice but there are some voice-changing disorders that we can address. For example, when it suddenly becomes shriller or more severe, they are often related to too high or too low positioning of the larynx. A variation in sound, no, because the type of frequency emitted depends on the anatomical structure of each of us: length of the cords, thickness and positioning of the larynx. The resonances and harmonics of the voice can be improved.
Francesco Bianco
Source: https://www.ok-salute.it/benessere/curare-la-voce-con-losteopatia/