Snoring Surgery: 5 Procedures to Consider When No Snoring Aids Work

Tired of your constant, non-stoppable snoring? Maybe you’ve tried out all the options available but still cannot find the cure for your condition. As you might have already been advised by your doctor, snoring surgery is perhaps the only way out of the problem for you.

Though there are various types of non-surgical snoring solutions available like implants, orthodontic appliances, home remedies and CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) techniques, for some people snoring surgery is the only solution to their persistent sleep disorder.

But any kind of surgery, be it major or minor, needs some amount of mental preparation. While snoring surgery may be a last resort to cure the condition, you have to keep in mind that it involves some amount of incisions, blood loss and pain, and requires time to heal.

Snoring Surgery: 5 Popular Procedures

Since there are numerous options available with snoring surgery, you might want to be completely informed about your choices before you go under the surgeon’s scalpel. Here’s a brief description of the most common surgical procedures for snoring:

• LAUP, or Laser assisted Uvuloplasty, is a type of snoring surgery that you hear about hear a lot about when looking for snoring cures. From the name itself, you know that this is a laser surgery for snoring.

Essentially, this procedure involves removing the obstructive tissues that block the air passage by the use of CO2 laser. Many people avoid this kind of snoring surgery, because of the serous alteration of voice that it normally results in.

Some of the other side effects of this surgery include sore ears and dry mouth.

You might need at least 5 visits to the doctors’ clinic where each visit is planned with a gap of 4 to 8 weeks of each other. After this the total effect of the laser surgery for snoring is evident. Patients who received LAUP treatment reported 90% improvement of their snoring condition.

• Instead of removing obstructions from the air passage, the pathway can also be enlarged so as to ease the flow of air through it, while breathing. This is the underlying principle behind one type of snoring surgery called UPPP or the Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of this type of surgery is the high cost and chances of obstructions returning necessitating a second surgical intervention to clear the air passage. Post surgical infection, excessive bleeding is also reported.

• Vibration of the soft palate as it collapses during sleep is one of the common causes of snoring. CAPSO or the Cautery-assisted palatal stiffening operation is a type of snoring surgery makes use of the concept of burning some sections of the palate to stiffen it and thereby preventing it from vibrating during sleep. However, the efficacy of this type of snoring surgery has not yet been established and the subsequent success rate is still not recorded.

• There is one snoring surgery that is least invasive and almost painless. It is called radio frequency tissue ablation or RFTA, better known by its trade name Somnoplasty.

This procedure, done at the out patient department of a hospital or at the doctors’ chamber, involves using very low radio frequency thermal energy, unlike laser-assisted surgeries to create fine burn areas with the tissues that are causing obstruction to the air flow. These tissues could be found in the uvula or the soft palate. With time, these burnt tissues get re-absorbed and the volume of tissue is significantly reduced.

Incidentally, somnoplasty has been approved by the FDA. Perhaps the only downside to this procedure is that a solitary session may not be able to cure snoring. However, with subsequent sessions, snoring is significantly reduced.

• Maxillomandibular advancement is yet another type of snoring surgery that is considered to be more complex than other procedures. This surgery involves advancing the lower jaw by about 12 millimeters. This is done by surgically cutting and removing the bones that hold the upper and lower jaws.