Sitting, standing, or lying supine
Anterior to the patient.
Please sit down. May I touch the front of your neck? (or point to the area).
Very gently place your finger tips on the anterior surface of the neck and inferior to the hyoid bone. Ask the patient to swallow. Let your fingers sense movement of the thyroid cartilage during the swallow. The thyroid cartilage is larger in men than in women. The larger size of this cartilage in men leads to their deeper voice.
VH - Skeleton of the trunk, neck and head, hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage, anterior view - on one side add the sternohyoid, sternothyroid, thyrohyoid, omohyyoid, longus colli and capitis, scalenes, sternocleidomastoid, muscles and tendons