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Botox Also Used To Help Incurable Vocal Disorder

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Jul 1, 2008 6:35 pm US/Mountain

Botox Also Used To Help Incurable Vocal Disorder

Reporting
Kathy Walsh
DENVER (CBS4) ― When most people hear "Botox," they probably think wrinkle relief. But the same treatment that can ease frown lines can also help people with an incurable vocal disorder called "spasmodic dysphonia."

It can happen to anybody -- waking up one day and finding their voice raspy and strained for good. There is no cure, but Botox injections can temporarily give bring a voice back that was lost to spasmodic dysphonia.

"I'm not whispering, this is my voice, this is it," said Judy Robison-Bullard to CBS4's Kathy Walsh in an interview. Robison-Bullard suffers from spasmodic dysphonia.

For nearly 20 years, Robison-Bullard has been explaining her hoarse and strangled voice.

"Over a period of a year I went from being a perfectly normal person to a person who couldn't speak at all," she said.

It's sounds like painful laryngitis.

"(It's) basically spasms of the muscles of the voice box," Dr. Andre Reed with the Center for Voice and Swallowing Services said.

There is no cure and there's no way to ever get better, until Botox was discovered to relieve some of the spasms.

Reed is one of just a few doctors in the Denver area who performs the procedure. He marks a location on the vocal cords, then using an electrical signal to help guide him, he finds the muscles that are experiencing spasms and injects the Botox through the neck.

The effects are temporary.

"Just like for wrinkles the Botox wears off and has to be repeated," Reed said.

For Robison-Bullard, it's sound medicine.

"If I didn't have the Botox injections I would be completely mute," Robison-Bullard said.

It takes a few days for the injection to work and lasts about six good weeks.

Reed says spasmodic dysphonia can often be misdiagnosed. Some patients are told it's psychological.

Robison-Bullard said it has turned her life upside down. She even lost a job.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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