Akademik

n.

Cosmetic vocal cord surgery designed to make a person's voice sound younger. Also: voice-lift.

Let's say you don't like the sound of your voice. Well, we've all heard about face-lifts. What about a voice-lift? It's a new medical procedure which has some people really excited, but in this edition of "Dr. Tim on Call," Medical Editor Dr. Tim Johnson sends up a warning that people have to be very cautious before having elective surgery on their vocal cords.

— Diane Sawyer, "Dr. Tim on Call," Good Morning America, April 22, 2004

A new vanity surgery has reared its smooth, unlined head: the voice lift.

After all, what good does it do to have Nicole's nose, a baby-smooth brow, Salma Hayek's bustline, feet surgically reshaped for Manolos, blindingly white teeth and thighs lipo'd free of fat if you sound like Grandpa Simpson?

When I heard about the voice lift, I involuntarily yelled, "No — they can't be raising the bar yet again!" And then I immediately regretted it. Using the vocal cords, I learned, is precisely what makes the voice age in the first place. "Idiot," I said to myself, silently.

— Beth Teitell, "Voice lift' sounds like trouble to me," The Boston Herald, April 21, 2004

After the tummy tuck, the forehead tightener, the nose job and the jowl trim, something still might be giving away your age: your voice.

For patients who think their trembly, raspy or wispy words don't match their newly firm face and figure, there's a procedure that claims to make them sound younger too: the voice lift.

— Joann Loviglio, "Yet another age-fighting strategy: Surgery for a younger voice," The Associated Press, April 18, 2004

A voice lift sounds like a joke — something you'd see in The Onion or on Saturday Night Live. But cosmetic voice surgery has been around for a few years and is normally used to treat people who have lost the ability to speak due to illness or injury. (Surgeons typically plump up the cords with implants or injections of fat or collagen.) But we live in a culture where people find television shows such as The Swan and Extreme Makeover entertaining, so it was inevitable that someone would ask to have their vocal cords tweaked for purely cosmetic reasons, and the voice lift was born