Yonca has many years of experience and training in guiding patients through their head and neck cancer diagnosis and initial treatment, as well as treating long-term swallowing, speech and voice effects of chemotherapy and radiation after the treatment is concluded.
Yonca has many years of experience and training in guiding patients through their head and neck cancer diagnosis and initial treatment, as well as treating long-term swallowing, speech and voice effects of chemotherapy and radiation after the treatment is concluded.
The speech pathologist’s involvement ideally begins at diagnosis, providing crucial pre-treatment counseling to patients and families about potential sequelae and establishing a therapeutic relationship that fosters adherence to rehabilitation. During the cancer treatment, Yonca helps patients maximize their nutrition and oral intake by adjusting diets and teaching individualized safe-swallowing strategies. She works to preserve function, minimize side effects like dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) and dysarthria (speech problems), and helps manage issues such as dry mouth or muscle tension from radiation. Post-treatment, she helps patients improve swallowing safety and efficiency, restore voice and speech, and manage long-term complications like tissue/muscle tightness from post radiation fibrosis, ultimately striving to maximize a patient’s quality of life and social reintegration. She utilizes treatment modalities like VitalStim, sEMG, myofascial release and laryngeal massage to help enhance treatment effects, alongside speech and swallowing exercises and strategies.