Hey all,

So I am going to be going full time very soon and I am looking at planing out my surgeries. The first one I plan on getting is my voice surgery. To me it is the most important one to get and I find that I am always so self conscious when I talk. I have been following both Jenny and Eva's threads, but I am just not sure which to choose. I know no one will be able to tell me which one to go with, but I am looking for more expert advice on the differences between the two methods. To me, the glottoplasty between the two seems virtually identical, yet the results from Yeson seem to be much better overall (from the limited recordings I have found on Dr. Haben). Is this a matter of patients with more experience with voice training pre-op in terms of the Yeson results? Also, has anyone figured out why you can start talking after 7 days with Dr. Haben, but with Yeson you have to wait a month?

While the cost and the overseas travel are considerations, ultimately the results outweigh any other downsides. I am eagerly awaiting feedback.

Melissa

P.S. I really can't help but to picture the two doctors fighting it out Mortal Kombat style due to the title of this post

Melissa, 

Dr. Kim told me that talking too much early would make my voice return to its previous lower pitch, I am not sure why, perhaps it is mental or perhaps it is a concern for the vibration weakening the stiches ability to hold things together while you heal.  In my case the words I spoke after 7 days were hoarse and breathy with frequent drop-outs where there wasn't any voice to speak of.  I've gotten better in the hoarse department at 30 days, but the pitch is still changing for the better.  Some days I have to speak a lot more than 3 words, and those days the pitch will seem to lower over the day, so I guess Dr. Kim's concerns are reasonable.

i know Dr Haben told us come day 8 we could start talking lightly (one or two words). but on day 8 its still hard to talk and its learning to talk in a different way. even now that im hitting 2 weeks im limiting my talk as im still getting use to things. but either surgery you have you will still need to learn how to use your new voice some voice training therapy would be a must. or at least thats what im thinking.

There are a number of variables between Eva and Jenny... Eva was a heavy smoker and her voice was pretty low, for example.

Quote from: warmbody28 on March 05, 2015, 08:14:52 AM
i know Dr Haben told us come day 8 we could start talking lightly (one or two words). but on day 8 its still hard to talk and its learning to talk in a different way. even now that im hitting 2 weeks im limiting my talk as im still getting use to things. but either surgery you have you will still need to learn how to use your new voice some voice training therapy would be a must. or at least thats what im thinking.

Warmbody28, can I ask what made you choose Dr. Haben over Yeson?

You sure can. I was able to get into contact with some people who went to dr haben and I liked the results. I compared them to some of the results I found on YouTube from Korea and it was so close. I also liked that I had easy post op access to him post op. I can go up and see him whenever I feel the need.

I think the no talking restriction is important. Dr Kim explained to me that I should really try to not talk and even keep coughing to a minimum for 4 weeks after the surgery or even after the Botox in my case (making it a total of 5 weeks). The reason is, the would the ycreate needs 2 months to heal and grow together in a nice way, there is also scar tissue forming that stabilizes the new commissure which takes some weeks to form properly. In that time, the whole thing should be kept rather calm to heal well, otherwise it may be deformed or scar in the wrong way. So talking too early would then cause maybe a deeper or hoarser/breathier voice in the end. It is part of why Dr Kim also uses the permanent sutures - they last during all the 2 months, so there is no riskafter 2-3 weeks when other sutures dissolved to do damage.
It seems individual though - some seem to be allowed to talk earlier, some later. To me he said not to talk until week 5 post op, if I slip a few times with 1-2 words a day would not be so bad though. Better would be not to do it though. And until 2 months post op I should still keep it low.

Sadly I dont know exactly what Dr Haben does or what the others do with glottoplasty, so a comparison with Dr Kim is a bit hard. I am trying to write a comparison but I need to make some assumptions about the other surgeries from what I have gathered so far. One major difference seems to be that Dr Kim tries to really avoid turbulence by making a very deep suture and create scar tissue under the new commissure. That way he avoids hoarseness (turbulence) and pitch/voice instability (by strengthening the commissure).

Dr Kims method is described as "Vocal Fold Shortening and Advancement of Anterior Commisure (VFS AAC)" and I think the key is the second part - he makes a very stable new commissure, something others seem to be less good at.

Hi warmbody28,  may I ask, were you able to contact Haben's former patients before the consultation?

sure you can ask. i checked with him prior to booking and he helped put me in contact with some of the people, and you can start talking slightly after7-8 days but you really need to wait 2 weeks. after 7 days your voice wont let you say very much. i was a two word person for almost 3 weeks. but i will also say i have been very happy with my results

Seems like they both do great work, but as always it's important to have realistic expectations about what it's going to do for you. There is still usually a lot of training that must take place.

The surgical procedure is obviously very important, but it's what you do with it that really counts!

Quote from: Jennygirl on June 12, 2015, 04:35:41 AM
Seems like they both do great work, but as always it's important to have realistic expectations about what it's going to do for you. There is still usually a lot of training that must take place.

The surgical procedure is obviously very important, but it's what you do with it that really counts!

Definitely. I am totally struggling with that right now and it can be incredibly frustrating -  just as without the surgery - it seems to come easy for some, they just fall into a new voice and never have to think about voice again and others seem to have to struggle, train, find the proper exercises...




I wonder if the combination of CTA and glottoplasty really does have an advantage over the glottoplasty alone. From what I read the claims made so far are: it makes dropping into the chest voice harder or impossible, it forces the pitch up instead of just making it easier to use higher pitches and it supposedly pushes up the voice break into head voice. I dont like CTA because of the scar and because previous CTA results I have heard, but the combined method here seems to work well for those who had it so far, it seems...