Now take the wrinkles out of your voice

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1081488,00.html

Health news

April 20, 2004

Now take the wrinkles out of your voice

From Bone in New York

YOU can have the face-lift, the tummy tuck, liposuction and Botox jabs, but

still your voice can betray your age.

Now doctors in America are offering cosmetic surgery for people who want to

sound as young as they look ‹ the ³voice-lift².

³You can pay $15,000 for a face lift or a nose job and everything else, but

still sound 75 over the telephone,² according to Dr Thayer Sataloff,

of the ear, nose and throat department of Philadelphia¹s Graduate Hospital.

³If someone can take the tremor out of your voice, that would be of more

value for you.²

Like the rest of the body, the vocal chords grow flaccid with age. Talking,

shouting and singing take their toll, leaving voices weak and quavering.

Women¹s voices continue to drop throughout their lives, so that they end up

speaking in a deep pitch. Men¹s voices fall until their fifth decade, then

become increasingly squeaky.

To produce sound, the two vocal chords must close together. People can make

their voices sound younger by exercise. But some require surgery to help the

vocal chords to close.For about $17,500 doctors will insert implants through

an incision in the neck or inject fat, collagen or a bone-making substance

called hydroxyl appetite through the mouth. After resting for a couple of

weeks, the patient can speak with less effort in a firmer tone.

Dr Sataloff, the author of a textbook on voice care, is a former opera

singer who teaches at the Curtis Institute music school and serves as cantor

in his synagogue. He has operated on all types of patient.

³Typically, radio announcers, actors, politicians ‹ oh yes, I wish I could

tell you ‹ sales personnel and corporate executives are the kind of people

interested in this,² he said.

Anzidei, 75, had surgery after catching a cold which aggravated an

injury that had paralysed one of his vocal chords. He was left barely able

to croak.

Dr Sataloff injected fat from his stomach into his vocal chords. ³My voice

went back to pretty much like normal,² he said. ³My friends said it sounds

very good.² But Mr Anzidei still speaks in his native New Jersey drawl,

however. One thing doctors cannot do is to alter a patient¹s accent.