Mumbai: The Bombay Hospital Voice and Swallowing Centre on Tuesday organised a panel discussion on ‘caring and celebrating voice’ with a theme of resonate, educate, celebrate. Every year, April 16 is celebrated as World Voice Day to raise awareness about the importance of voice in people’s lives.

Dr Nupur Kapoor Nerurkar, ENT surgeon and Laryngologist said that voice forms part of human identity and any problem with it results in a multi-dimensional handicap for the patient. Prevention, thorough analysis, investigation, and relevant correction are all needed to address this problem.

“There is less awareness related to various causes of voice change and the importance of consulting a doctor if it remains altered for more than 2-3 weeks. Medications and voice therapy often help and occasionally surgery is needed with post-operative voice rest for a week followed by voice therapy. To discuss and share this information, we organised a panel discussion where singers and professional voice users discussed the importance of taking care of their voice,” she said.

Dr Nupur further added that there are myths related to voice change due to which the important aspects of prevention and precautions are often not understood, or sometimes, ignored.