Treatments

Making changes to your diet and other lifestyle habits can reduce snoring. Here are several ways to help:

• Lose weight. Being overweight causes increased tissue bulkiness in the back of the throat, which narrows your airways and increases snoring.
• Limit alcohol and sedating medications. Alcohol and sedatives such as sleeping pills depress the central nervous system, which can cause increased muscle relaxation. As muscles in the back of the throat relax, tissues fall into the airway and can increase obstruction.
• Treat nasal allergies. Any form of nasal congestion decreases the ability to breathe through the nose, which aggravates snoring.
• Sleep on your side. Lying on your back allows the tongue and soft palate to fall back due to gravitational forces. Sleeping on your side decreases this effect.
• Elevate the head of your bed. Elevating the head of the bed decreases the ability for soft tissues to fall straight backward and obstruct the airway.
• Stop smoking. Smoking is very irritating to the nasal linings and can be a significant cause of nasal congestion, which aggravates snoring.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a medical device typically used to treat sleep apnea. When worn properly, CPAP is an excellent tool to treat sleep apnea and reduce snoring.

Mandibular advancement appliances are another medical device used to treat snoring and sleep apnea. These devices hold the mandible forward while you sleep, which helps keep soft tissues out of the airway. These devices can be effective in certain patients. Side effects include the possibility of changing teeth alignment and causing temporal mandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome.

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Injection snoreplasty is a simple, cost-effective clinical procedure. After spraying a topical anesthesia in the mouth to numb the area, an injection is placed into the midline of the soft palate. This injection causes an ulceration to form.

As the ulceration heals and scar tissue forms, the soft palate tightens and decreases vibration or snoring. There is minimal pain with this procedure. Some patients may need a repeat injection for optimal results.

During this simple in-office procedure, three separate implants are placed into the soft palate. Pillar implants, which are made from medical-grade braided polyester, work by stiffening the soft palate. The stiffening occurs from the implant itself, as well as from the subsequent scar tissue that forms as the palate heals.  

Using radiofrequency energy, the base of the tongue can be tightened and shrunk in a simple 5-minute clinic procedure, decreasing sleep apnea at the tongue level.

Many patients who snore also have chronic nasal congestion. Oftentimes nasal congestion is simply caused by enlarged turbinates, which are small, rounded, bony projections inside the breathing passage on each side of your nose.

If nasal steroids do not resolve congestion, we can perform turbinate reduction in our office. Using local anesthesia, your doctor will decrease swollen turbinate tissue beneath the mucosal tissue layer to provide significant improvement in the nasal airway. There is no significant postoperative bleeding, crusting, or pain with this procedure.

The uvula is the soft tissue that hangs from the back of the throat. It can become elongated and swollen in patients who snore frequently. Your doctor can perform a quick in-office procedure to reduce the size of the uvula to help decrease snoring.

Some patients have nasal obstruction caused by septal deviation. The nasal septum is the midline portion of the nose that divides the nasal cavity into two equal halves. A deviated septum can significantly reduce your ability to breathe through one side of your nose.

During a simple 20-minute surgical procedure, your doctor can straighten your septum to improve your breathing. This is usually performed in conjunction with a turbinate reduction. There is minimal pain and bleeding after the procedure, and no packing of the nose is necessary.

Most children who have significant snoring have enlarged tonsils. Some adults may also have this problem. A tonsillectomy is a simple surgical procedure that removes this excess tissue in the back of the throat. Complications are rare, but you will likely have a sore throat for one week after surgery.

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) is a surgical procedure that works excellent for snoring, but is typically reserved for patients with sleep apnea. During this procedure, your doctor will surgically reduce excess tissue of the soft palate and the uvula. The decrease in tissue volume, as well as the postoperative scarring, significantly reduces both snoring and sleep apnea.

Geniohyoid advancement hyoid myotomy (GAHM) is a surgical procedure used to treat patients with severe sleep apnea. This procedure helps to permanently move the tongue and the soft tissues around the tongue forward and out of the airway.

Most patients with moderate to severe sleep apnea have a component of tongue-base airway obstruction. Inspire therapy is a fully implantable system similar to a pacemaker that delivers mild stimulation to the tongue to keep your airway open during sleep. There is no discomfort and the system is only operational while sleeping.

The generator battery will need to be replaced every 10 years. Most patients who undergo Inspire implant therapy no longer need CPAP. To qualify for therapy, the patient must have a body mass index (BMI) of 32 or less and undergo an endoscopy to confirm the site of airway obstruction.