Immediate effects of photobiomodulation with low-level laser followed by the voiced tongue trill technique in women with behavioral dysphonia.

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the immediate effects of low-power laser photobiomodulation followed by the voiced tongue trill technique (VTTT) in women with behavioral dysphonia.

Methods: This is an experimental study with 30 dysphonic women divided into two groups: Group 1 (G1): placebo LASER followed by VTTT; and Group 2 (G2): infrared LASER at 9 Joules (J) per point (total 63 J) followed by VTTT. Multidimensional assessment included auditory-perceptual evaluation, aerodynamic measurement of maximum phonation time (MPT), acoustic analysis with short-term measurements, cepstral measurements, and extraction of multiparametric indexes, evaluation of self-perceived phonatory effort, and visual-perceptual evaluation of laryngeal images.

Results: Vocal quality did not differ significantly between the intervention moments or between groups in sustained vowel, but there were positive changes in the overall degree of vocal deviation in the continuous speech task in the placebo LASER group followed by VTTT (p=0.047). G1 had a decrease in jitter (0.025) and pitch perturbation quotient (0.033), and G2 had an increase in MPT (p-value=0.013) and vowel CPPS (p-value=0.027), a decrease in self-perceived phonatory effort (p-value=0.014), and an improvement in vocal fold vibration parameters (p-value=0.017).

Conclusion: The results show that infrared LASER associated with VTTT improves MPT, voice harmonic structure, self-perceived phonatory effort, and vocal fold vibration pattern of dysphonic women, suggesting that this resource has potential effects on the voice.