Objective To investigate the effects of different surgical methods on vocal cord benign lesions and vocal cord function. Methods 126 cases of patients with vocal cord benign lesions treated in our hospital from Apr. 2013 to Dec. 2015 were selected, including 57 cases with routine fiberoptic laryngoscope surgery (the control group) and another 69 cases with self-retaining laryngoscope and nasal endoscope (the observation group). The effects of two kinds of surgical methods on vocal cord benign lesions and its influence on vocal cord function were observed and compared. Results The total treatment effective rate in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (98.55%vs 80.70%). The levels of fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency perturbation, amplitude perturbation, normalized noise energy (NNE) and harmonic noise ratio (HNR) were significantly improved in the two groups after treatment, and the improvement degree in the observation group was better than that in the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the total incidence rate of postoperative complications between the two groups (χ2 =2.886, P=0.090). Conclusion Compared with traditional self-retaining laryngoscope, self-retaining laryngoscope and nasal endoscope has better visual field, better efficacy and higher postoperative vocal cord function recovery.