Circumlaryngeal Massaging (CMT)

Question 1

What is Circumlaryngeal Massage Therapy?

Answer 1

Direct manual intervention for reducing excessive tension in laryngeal muscles (Mathieson, 2011)

Question 2

What is the goal of CMT?

Answer 2

To restore the natural resting position of the larynx in the neck, reduce overall muscle tension and vocal hyperfunction (Milstein, 2011)

Question 3

Who is CMT for?

Answer 3

Patients with muscle tension dysphonia

Patients with elevated laryngeal positioning
Reposturing of larynx
Transgender, puberphonia

Can allow for differential diagnosis of MTD versus SD

Question 4

Is there one universal method of CMT?

Answer 4

No, they vary slightly in the literature. There is the laryngeal manual therapy and circumlaryngeal therapy.

Question 5

How many main laryngeal re-posturing techniques are there?

Answer 5

three

Question 6

What are the three main laryngeal re-posturing techniques?

Answer 6

Push-back maneuver—place a forefinger on thyroid cartilage and push back to change shape of glottis.

Pull-down maneuver—place thumb and forefinger in the thyrohyoid space and pull the larynx downward.

Medial compression and downward traction—place thumb and forefinger in the thyrohyoid space, and apply medial compression.

Question 7

What should the patient due during the massage?

Answer 7

They should phonate on /a/ or /uh/ at an easy pitch to listen for quality change.