Objective: Hydration is important to withstand the friction of the vocal folds and phonation and for avoiding vocal pathologies. It plays an anatomical and physiological role. Water is important to soften the impact, inasmuch as adding mass and shape and providing lubrication to the vocal fold tissues. Damp gauze and nebulizer are two ways to hydrate directly, differing in the size of the inhaled water droplet. The goal is to observe whether nebulizer and damp gauze modify the functionality of the vocal folds, improving the vocal quality and increasing the mobility and pliability of the mucosal wave.
Methods / Design: 30 young adults (Meanage=25.49; SD=2.9) without previous vocal pathology, no reflux and no allergies were divided into three randomly assigned groups: Damp gauze group, Nebulizer group, and control. The Damp gauze group breathed through the nose wrapped in a damp gauze for 10 minute while performing warm-up exercises to facilitate penetration. The Nebulizer group used a Nebulizer while performing the warm-up exercises for 10 minutes and the control group talked for 10 minutes. Participants were evaluated before and after treatment tasks with four tests: a vocal-well-being survey, laryngostroboscopic examination (ie, glottic closure, mucosal wave amplitude, and maximal glottic space opening); acoustic speech analysis (MDVP speech program and AVQI) and the perceptual evaluation of speech quality with the GRBAS scale.
Results. The results showed that after the use of the damp gauze and the nebulizer, participants improved the vocal quality and mucosal wave. Nebulizer and damp gauze showed differences in the participant’s well-being, in the stroboscope examination and in the acoustic analysis
Conclusions. The use of direct hydration has a beneficial impact in the vocal folds. There is more than one option to perform direct hydration. These options would depend on individual needs and circumstances.