Since I, nor anyone that I know, have had their tonsils removed, I must turn to the SDMB for the answer to my question. Does having your tonsils removed affect your voice in anyway? Thanks
Fippo-
Through our bleeding/We are one
My WAG would be no. Your tonsils, while in the back of your mouth are not going to effect your vocal cords which are in your throat. Huffing helium on the other hand . . .
A couple of cousins and a girl friend all had their tonsils removed within a few months. One was a college choir singer, another sang with the local symphony choir (something like that) and the last in the shower only - none of them had a problem with singing after surgery.
More likely to have irritation from being intubated for anesthesia, but that would still be temporary - week, two?
Talk this over with your doc.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
OK, I just did a BUNCH of research on this subject because my daughter’s ENT wanted to take her tonsils and adnoids out. Now, I suppose you want me to go back and find all of that stuff. Well, I’m not going to. You’ll just have to take my word for it or do an internet search like I did. It took me days. The answer is YES sometimes the voice is effected by tonsil removal.
When I had my tonsils removed, I could talk, but only barely. Whatever I said usually came out as a hoarse whisper, for about 2 weeks after the operation.
Here’s an article on tonsilectomies from webmd.com
I was too little to remember any changes (18 months old, fer cryin out loud). My eldest daughter had hers removed last summer, and for her, the answer is YES – in the best way possible.
Her throat was so constantly swollen that she sounded like she was talking through her nose before the surgery. Awful sound. After … no problems at all, and the loud and clear “child” voice has taken the place of the nasal whine.
Of course, since they MISSED part of my tonsils 30+ years ago, and I’ve had chronic tonsilitis since October (currently chugging through an unpleasant acute stage), I’ll probably be getting cut this summer. Whee.
AFAIK, the only real voice changes you will get will be if your condition was so severe beforehand that the tissue itself had caused your voice to change.
That makes a lot of sense. The voice that a person has with chronic tonsilitis isn’t their natural voice. The Q&A that I read that on didn’t go into that much detail.
yeah, i got my tonsils removed, but, WHY?
What do the tonsils do, why are they there?
Well, click on UncleBeer’s link.
Tonsils trap & destroy microorganisms that enter the throat and they produce antibodies that aid your immune system.
Those are two reasons we didn’t have when I was a kid. Nobody knew what tonsils did so they were expendable. Getting your tonsils snipped out was considered a part of childhood. Like getting measles, mumps and chickenpox.
Our Doctor was educated in another country and didn’t share the U.S. idea of cutting. He believed tonsils were there for a reason we just hadn’t figured out yet.
He lived long enough to see he was right. Cutting out tonsils is not treated as casually as it once was.
Right. And that’s precisely the reason that a lot of folks have to lose them – they stop working right.
I was so sick for the first 18 months of my life, they thought I’d be deaf from the ear infections, as well as permanently imunosuppressed. I was a SICK kid, with high fevers that couldn’t be brought down with drugs and didn’t go away even after full courses of antibiotics. The tonsils worked TOO well, and caught every bug that came near. Unfortunately, my immune system couldn’t cope with all that. My tonsils were removed as a definite medical necessity.
Oh, to have had that be the last note of the story.
I’m a sick adult now. Some time back in late September, the little bit of tonsil that they missed 30 years ago was introducted to an infection it couldn’t beat.
I’ve been to the ER because my throat swelled so much that I couldn’t breathe. I’ve spent the last 5 months with a swollen achy hole in the back of my throat that flared up into full raging 103+ fevers at the slightest provocation. 5 months, 4 courses of major antibiotics, and the swollen pus-pocketed tonsil has never fought the infection off. I can’t turn my head properly right now, because my throat is so swollen and sore. The ENT is trying a different antibiotic this time, one that is very rarely used on tonsilitis to try to see if it will kick it at last.
I’ve been on it over a week. I’m sicker than I was before I started.
Chronic tonsilitis. You know, maybe Darwin had something, and defiant tonsils like mine that are trying to kill me off are trying to tell us that we’ve overevolved. They may have had their use, but now they’re just making me sick.
Ptooey.
Folks that DO still have tonsils: have you noticed whether or not you get sicker than those around you that don’t have them? Do you catch colds with less frequency, or is it about the same?
My husband catches absolutely every cootie Thing 1 brings home from school. He still has full tonsils.
Until the sudden flare-up in September, I almost never caught the Virus duJour. Now, I’m just sick all the time. Wish mine did work right, because I’m terrified of having to go through that operation AGAIN. But the drugs just aren’t working, I’m sick of being sick and feeling like a pincushion from all the needles being stuck in me.
Ptooey again.
I got my tonsils out when I was 8 becuz the doctor thought it would improve my hearing. This has to be the biggest load of crap I ever heard. But when you are 8 you don’t get a choice.