Hi there, I'm a 21 year old MtF and, after a largely fruitless 2 years of voice surgery I am deciding on what surgeon I am going to have voice surgery with. My main struggle with the voice therapy has been my difficulty in gaining pitch, so I believe I'm a good candidate for voice surgery.

Now, I have done endless reading on both doctors and cannot come to a conclusion as to which doctor I would prefer to do my surgery. I've have decided upon 2 doctors - Dr. Haben or Dr. Kim from Yeson, as I believe the glottoplasty method is the safest, most modern form of voice surgery currently available, but I cannot decide between them. Frankly, I'm crossing my fingers that I decide Dr. Haben is the best of the two, simply because hes so much closer and cheaper than Yeson, but I cannot base my decision on travel desires and price, I have base my decision on which doctor will give me a better voice.

For this, I need help from you guys. Can all of you put forward your honest opinions as to which doctor gets better results for their patients? If you'd prefer something less adversarial, could someone explain the differences in the method between each doctor and how these differences in method affect the end results so that I can break this indecisiveness of mine? Thank you very much.

Well I am a Yeson gal and my voice passes without question.

But I have heard Haben girls and their voices sound good too and pass very well, same as mine.

I would choose either if I had to choose again. I really liked my experience with Dr Kim but Dr Haben is closer and cheaper plus it's US medical care and maybe some of it is covered/reimbursed by insurance.

Really tough choice. Both are great surgeons. I give the edge to Dr Kim for glottoplasty because he has shown a wide variety of consistent results. I give Dr Haben marks for offering more than just glottoplasty.

With either one you can't go wrong.

Welcome to Susan's Place. I am with Dr Haben and you aren't going to get off that easy. Both doctors do good work and the main difference is in surgical procedure. The net result is the same. I picked Dr Haben because the web page for the doctor was very clear about the procedure and the limitations of the surgery. It gave me enough information combined with my knowledge of speech that I knew what was possible and what I would get.  I understand you can get that information with Yeson if you call them. My advice to you is to learn everything you can about the procedure each doctor offers by using email or phone before deciding then go with the doctor you are most comfortable with.

Also, as you are in speech therapy, give both doctors the information on your natural and trained voice so they will know what they will need to do. In my case, I need the surgery for my trained voice to hit the feminine range. Like you my voice was so low I was about 130-140Hz in my trained voice.

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The differences in the technique seem to be to my best knowledge:
Dr Kim:
*uses microscalpels
*uses permanent threads
- which can be tightened more and last through the full healing period
- which allows for a good healing of the surgery site.
*removes and later replaces upper layer of the vocal folds to not have scar tissue in the open
*sets the sutures very deep and "tapered", as to avoid formation of a pocket of air under the new commissure
- this reduces hoarseness
* almost always uses Botox which makes learning the new voice a bit easier in the first weeks

Dr Haben
* uses Laser to burn/cut the upper layer of the vocal fold tissue
* uses dissolvable threads which will not stay in your body permanently
* can provide you with a combination of several surgical procedures