Snoring Surgery in Denver, CO

Snoring Treatments

If you’re hoping to eliminate snoring from your life, there are plenty of strategies you can try, both at home and in a specialist’s office.

At-Home Treatments

As the first line of defense, you’ll want to decrease muscle relaxation, which should help with your snoring. Because alcohol, sleeping pills, and antihistamines often increase muscle relaxation, you should try to:

• Avoid alcohol near bedtime.
• Take your allergy medicines earlier in the day.
• Refrain from using sleeping pills.

Losing weight, trying out oral appliances, and sleeping on your side are also great ways to treat snoring.

When you sleep on your back, gravity pulls the tissues in your mouth downwards, increasing the intensity of your snoring. Adjusting your position can open the passages in your mouth and throat, allowing for better airflow — and a restful slumber!

If you’ve tried these solutions without success, it’s time to see an ENT specialist. They’ll conduct an in-depth examination of your sleep patterns, then potentially move forward with one of the following procedures:

Septoplasty

A deviated septum, which occurs when the structure that separates your nostrils is off-center, can cause snoring and sleep apnea. A septoplasty will straighten the bone and cartilage between your nostrils, improving breathing and alleviating some of the symptoms of your sleep disorder.

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP)

Though it sounds complicated, a UPPP is actually relatively straightforward. During this procedure, a surgeon will remove excess tissue from your throat to open up some extra breathing room.

This soft tissue can come from a number of areas:

• Uvula
• Soft palate
• Tonsils
• Adenoids
• Pharynx

Pillar Implants

Instead of removing bulky throat tissue, a specialist might perform the pillar procedure, which aims to reduce snoring by stiffening the tissue in the soft palate.

After administering local anesthesia, the surgeon will place between three and five polyester implants into your tissue. Though it takes several months for the implants to be completely incorporated into your soft palate, the procedure itself takes less than an hour.

Tonsil Surgery

If swollen tonsils are the culprit behind your snoring, a tonsillectomy is the best way to resolve the problem. Removing your tonsils will open up your airways, restoring your regular sleep patterns — sometimes permanently!

Palate Radiofrequency Tightening (Somnoplasty)

Radiofrequency tissue ablation is a cutting-edge technique that shrinks the soft palate using radio signals. This treatment cuts and coagulates tissues in the back of the throat, helping to clear up breathing obstructions for lasting relief.

Sleep Study for Sleep Apnea

Normally, when you snore, the tissues at the back of your throat bump into each other briefly, then release as you continue to breathe. In severe cases, though, the tissues can collapse entirely, blocking your airway for prolonged periods. This condition has a special name: obstructive sleep apnea.

If you or your bed partner suspects that you’re suffering from sleep apnea, it’s crucial that you meet with an ENT doctor. Sleep apnea has significant health impacts, including:

• High blood pressure
• Headaches
• Increased risk of stroke or coma
• Increased risk of heart attack

How a Sleep Study Works

To get a better understanding of your apnea, you can do an at-home sleep study.

During the study, our specialists will collect valuable data on your sleep patterns. We’ll learn if you stop breathing while sleeping, how often it happens, and how long it lasts. The sleep study machine will also show us how snoring affects your heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

Though wearing a mask to bed is one way to treat sleep apnea, we’ve found that many patients can’t tolerate the bulkiness of the mask. Instead, they opt for a surgical procedure to enlarge their airways, improve their breathing, and help them get a good night’s sleep.