All you need to now about Snoring Treatment
Some people ignore the fact that they are snoring and do not consider this phenomenon a disease. But sometimes this problem is the main symptom of sleep apnea, a life-threatening disease. Treatment of snoring is important not only to ensure proper rest of the patient and the people around, but to eliminate serious risks to human health.
Snoring: Causes, Dangers, Treatment
Many film characters teach us that snoring is a natural sound irritant, that its treatment is the last thing you should think about. But sadly, it is not as harmless, and separate bedrooms with sound insulation are not the way out of the situation. Loud snoring tells us that some health problems are present that should be addressed.
Familiar Sounds
The formation of snoring is often associated with a narrowing of the air passage between the larynx and throat, which creates vibration of soft tissues when they are relaxed. The patient only needs to sleep on the back to achieve the relaxation of tissues. In some people the relaxation does not lead to narrowing of the passage between the larynx and throat, as it happens in others and is accompanied by loud sounds. There are different root causes of this phenomenon: Obesity, alcohol consumption, traumas, problems with adenoids or tonsils, anatomical features. The occurrence of snoring is most often associated with the last cause. If the patient's lower jaw is small, the tongue is excessively shifted towards the throat, blocking the airways when the person is in a relaxed state lying on the back. This way the snoring occurs which can later develop into a life-threatening disease.
Threat to Health and Life
Snoring can be an unmistakable sign of sleep apnea: a dangerous disease associated with a temporary interruption of breathing for 10, 20, 30 seconds, and sometimes even for 2-3 minutes at a time. Such pauses in breath summed up can occupy more than half of all time of a night rest. As a result, the body experiences hypoxia (oxygen deprivation), which leads to daytime drowsiness, tiredness, problems with memory, brain slowdown, chronic fatigue, loss of capacity for work. Often apnea is associated with increased blood pressure in sleep (whereas sleeping arterial pressure of a healthy person, on the contrary, decreases), which leads to the development of vascular and heart diseases.
Snoring that should be treated. Symptoms
There are many signs that you can use to identify dangerous snoring and plan its subsequent treatment. If the patient wakes himself from the sounds he makes, feels fatigue and apathy during the day, sleeps while driving, has problems with concentration and attention, feels a constant lack of energy, it is likely that snoring began to grow into apnea. Without quality clinical treatment, the overall decline of living standards can be expected after the simple loss of tonus. It is impossible to be active without proper rest.
Snoring: Treatment Methods
Snoring treatment in women and men can be effectively carried out only with clinical approach. Because of the peculiarities of this disease it is impossible to fight it at home. Folk methods can be based on the amazing properties of various products that stimulate the production of collagen and other "building" proteins, but this only has a prophylactic effect, and cannot treat a neglected case of disease. The only optimal method is the surgical treatment of snoring, and there are several varieties of such therapy.
Plastic of Nasal Septum
In some cases the snoring is caused not by problems with the larynx, but by a deflected nose septum which can be a result of mechanical traumas or an inborn defect. In such cases, alleviating the disease is reduced to plastic surgery of the nasal septum or turbinal bone. Sometimes it may be necessary to perform a polypectomy (removal of polyps).
Surgical Implantation of Medical Devices
In modern centers of snoring treatment in Germany the surgical implantation of devices produced by the Pillar company is carried out. The procedure takes a tiny amount of time — only about 20 minutes — and comes down to installation of small cylindrical implants into the patient's palate. The material interacts with the tissues of the palate, leading to the alteration of the submucosal tissues and their stiffening. The installation is performed using a special pistol under local anesthesia. When the intervention is complete, the patient must be observed for seven days by specialist, take antibiotics and analgesics. The feeling of discomfort can persist up a day and a half after the surgery, and is characterized by pain in the throat, similar to that in a bad cold.
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP)
This surgical method of treating sleep apnea is one of the oldest among modern methods of fighting this disease. Within the UPPP surgery, the patient has the tonsils, the edges of the palate, and some redundant pharynx tissues removed. The intervention requires the use of anesthesia and is accompanied by subsequent unpleasant symptoms: problems with swallowing, taste reception, numbness of the tongue, bleeding. Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty will not always completely eliminate snoring. The symptoms of this disease may reoccur later and be sporadic.
Snoring Treatment with Laser
Treatment of snoring with laser can be viewed as a variety of uvulopalatoplasty. The surgery requires high qualification of the doctors, quality equipment and follow-up patient care. Numerous customer reviews give the impression that not every clinic is able to conduct a correct laser treatment: many patients discover scars after the intervention and the symptoms of sleep apnea only get worse. At the same time, nowadays a number of German and Austrian clinics use completely new techniques of CO2 laser therapy (carbon laser is used for the operation). Such a laser has a cosmetic effect on the larynx: the cavities get tightened, freeing the passage for the air flow.
Radio-wave Therapy of Snoring
Radio-wave plastic of the soft palate is the newest method, which was approved by leading specialists of the medical area and the American Drug Control Association. During the radio-wave treatment a directional electrode is injected into the patient's submucosa, the radiation from which forms fibrosis (growth) of the palate tissues with its subsequent strengthening. The operation requires the use of quality equipment and supervision by qualified specialists. Radio-wave treatment of snoring is the most promising method of eliminating this dangerous disease.
Myotomy of Genioglossal Muscle
Myotomy is a surgical method of treating apnea. During this operation the genioglossal muscle is pulled forward through the hole in the lower jaw. The method allows to increase the space for the air passage. It is applicable in the neglected cases of this disease.
Surgical Treatment of Snoring Through Osteotomy
Osteotomy is a complex plastic surgery in which the middle and lower parts of the face are moved forward, which increases the space for language placement. The method allows to get rid of the disease in the cases, when it is directly connected with the peculiarities of the patient's skull structure.
Which treatment method should you choose and how it should be conducted?
Methods of apnea treatment are chosen after a competent diagnosis of the disease with the subsequent identification of the most effective methods to fight it. And only at this stage it is possible to determine the real cost of snoring treatment. Modern methods of diagnosis and treatment of apnea make it possible to avoid some expensive surgical methods in favor of laser or radio-wave therapy. German Medical Group can help you find the best German clinics that can most effectively treat your medical problem.