Odalys Arriete knows teaching is her calling.

"I definitely wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember," she said.

KING

Odalys Arriete isn't worried about losing her voice again.

But her career nearly almost ended when she had a cyst removed from her thyroid.

"I mean, my eyes welled up and I just felt like completely drained. I had no idea that could have happened," she said.

The surgery damaged a vocal cord and left Odalys without a teacher's most valuable tool - her voice.

"It was very physically exhausting. It really was - and emotionally draining because all the sudden, you felt a little invisible," she said.

Dr. Roy Casiano says vocal cord paralysis can cause anxiety.

"They are considerably desperate. They cannot go back to work because nobody understands them. The family does not understand them," he said.

But a material called Radiesse is giving patients their voices back.

"It increases the bulk of the vocal cord where you have lost muscle. It fills that space," aid Dr. Casiano.

It's injected into the vocal cord and significantly helps more than 80 percent of patients.

For eight months, Odalys could only a whisper. Today, she's back in the classroom.

"I still have a little raspiness but boy, compared to what I sounded like, I feel like a new person really. It's wonderful," she said.

And she doesn't need to worry about losing her voice again. Doctors say Radiesse is a lifelong fix. 

Vocal cord paralysis can happen after head trauma, stroke, certain cancers, viral infections or even Parkinson's disease.

Radiesse is FDA approved. It's commonly used by plastic surgeons to fill in wrinkles.