Recovery guide
Vocal Fold Injection Recovery Guide
Quick answer: After a vocal fold injection, do not speak or whisper at all for 48 hours. Your voice often improves soon after the rest period ends; it may sound rough or uneven at first and keeps improving over the next several weeks. If the injection was done awake with your throat numbed, wait 2 hours before eating or drinking. Call us if your throat feels increasingly full, your voice gets worse, or swallowing becomes difficult in the days afterward.
What should I expect?
- Throat pain for a few days. Mild discomfort can occasionally last up to a week.
- Some discomfort when swallowing at first.
- Your voice often improves soon after the rest period ends. It may sound rough or uneven at first and keeps improving over the next several weeks.
How do I rest my voice?
- Do not speak or whisper at all for 48 hours.
- This keeps the injected material from leaking out of the injection site while it heals.
- Avoid coughing and clearing your throat.
How do I take care of myself?
- If the injection was done awake, with your throat numbed: do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours, until the numbness wears off.
- After that, or right away if you were asleep for the procedure, eat a normal diet.
- Drink plenty of water, about 60 ounces a day.
- Keep taking reflux medicine if it was prescribed.
- Take acetaminophen (Tylenol) as needed for pain.
- Do not smoke.
When should I call?
Call us for
- A fever over 101°F that does not go away
- Throat pain that gets worse or becomes severe
- In the 10 days after the injection: a new or growing feeling of fullness in the throat, a voice that gets worse instead of better, or new trouble swallowing. Call us the same day.
Call 911 or go to the ER for
Any trouble breathing, or noisy or high-pitched breathing.
Austin 512-339-4040 · Lakeway 512-682-4798 · Marble Falls 830-992-2830
Questions patients ask
Do not speak or whisper at all for 48 hours, so the injected material stays in place while it heals.
Your voice often improves soon after the rest period ends. It may sound rough or uneven at first and keeps improving over the next several weeks.
No. Do not speak or whisper at all for the first 48 hours.
If the injection was done awake with your throat numbed, wait 2 hours, until the numbness wears off, before eating or drinking. If you were asleep for the procedure, you can eat a normal diet right away.
In the 10 days afterward, call us the same day for a new or growing feeling of fullness in the throat, a voice that gets worse instead of better, or new trouble swallowing. Call 911 for any trouble breathing or noisy, high-pitched breathing.
This guide is for educational purposes only and does not replace an in-person evaluation. If your surgeon gave you different instructions, follow theirs.
Full guide: capitalent.com/vocal-fold-injection-recovery.html