Oesophageal speech after laryngectomy

After surgery to remove the whole of your voice box (total laryngectomy), you are no longer able to speak in the normal way. There are different ways you can communicate and learn to speak again. One of these is oesophageal speech.

Types of communication

The type of communication you have after a total laryngectomy depends on:

• your situation
• the type and amount of surgery you had
• your preferences

You see a speech and language therapist before your surgery to discuss the different ways you can use to communicate. Oesophageal speech, or swallowing air, is one way. But there are other ways to communicate, such as voice prosthesis and electrolarynx.

What is oesophageal speech?

If you use this method, your speech and language therapist begins teaching you soon after you recover from your operation.

How you do it

To speak in this way, you move air down into your food pipe (oesophagus). The air passes through the muscles in your throat and causes vibrations. You learn to use these vibrations and turn them into speech by moving your mouth and lips as you would when speaking normally.

It can take time to learn oesophageal speech. Some people are able to do it more quickly than others. The biggest difficulty is moving down enough air to be able to produce continuous speech. Most people start to speak in short sentences. 

Your speech and language therapist can be a great support during this time. They understand that you need a lot of practice.

The advantages of oesophageal speech

The advantage of oesophageal speech is that you don't need any equipment. This may be better for you than a speech valve if you have difficulty with fiddly things. You also don’t need any further surgery for oesophageal speech.

Oesophageal speech might also be a better option than an electrolarynx if you think you might have a problem holding something to your throat every time you need to speak.