The Voice Lift: Should vocal fold surgery be considered a cosmetic procedure?

People get face-lifts and other types of cosmetic surgery to look better. They exercise so that they’ll feel better. But few people consider a voice lift, which combines surgery and exercise to make them sound better.

“People spend thousands of dollars on chin implants, rhinoplasties, face-lifts, body sculpting, and then they open their mouth and everyone knows instantly they’re 80 years old,” said Robert T. Sataloff, MD, DMA, FACS, who invented the term “voice lift” during an interview with a reporter several years ago. “This is not necessary,” said Dr. Sataloff, professor and chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, and senior associate dean for Clinical Academic Specialties at the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. “The vocal characteristics that cue people to advanced age are subject to alteration.”

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But should vanity be the motivation for a voice lift? Many laryngologists dislike the term itself because it makes the exercises and surgical procedures involved sound cosmetic rather than therapeutic.