New York: US cosmetic surgeons have a new speciality, the voice lift, surgery that turns back the voice to a younger age.

Ageing men and women who have already had surgery to take off the years are now having operations on the vocal cords to get rid of their ageing voice.

The surgery was first pioneered to restore the voices of people who had lost their voices through injury of diseases such as cancer.

Ageing vocal cords, like other muscles loose their elasticity, so in the voice lift operation, surgeons either inject fat into the muscle or tighten up slack muscle.

Dr Robert Sataloff, Professor of Otolaryngology, the medical specialism that includes head and neck surgery, at Thomas Jefferson University says that this surgery is becoming increasingly common.