Snoring is a problem that affects millions of people around the world. In the USA alone, snoring affects approximately 25% to 50% of individuals who either have mild to moderate cases of snoring. Obstructive sleep apnea is another condition of which snoring is a component, but sleep apnea also involves brief interruptions of breathing during your sleep.
The main reason snoring takes place, for most of us, is because of a floppy soft palate that teeters backwards and forwards and vibrates at night while you sleep, that is especially troubling for mouth-breathers. For other people that have problems snoring, obstructive sleep apnea may be the culprit or a condition like allergies or an enlarged tongue base. The individuals for whom the primary reason for snoring is the soft palate and its floppiness as they sleep, there are several relatively newer treatments that can be just as effective, if not more so, than standard or laser-assisted surgery.
From LAUP to RAUP
A new treatment that's essentially a twist on the laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty is one that's carried out with radio waves. Radio frequency assisted uvulopalatoplasty, or RAUP, works in a similar yet different fashion versus the laser-assisted procedure. With RAUP, the surgeon utilizes thermal energy after you've been given a local anesthetic. The surgeon applies microwave energy to the soft palate through the use of a small needle. This procedure essentially creates scar tissue on the soft palate, stiffening it so it vibrates less as you are sleeping. Because the entire cause of snoring is a soft palate that flaps in the back of your throat, stiffening the palate makes it much less likely that you will snore.
Compared with its laser-assisted procedural counterpart, radio frequency assisted RAUP is really less-invasive and carries much less procedural risks as people typically don't experience just as much discomfort following the procedure than they do with LAUP. Like the laser surgery, however, RAUP for snoring entails a number of outpatient treatments. Many patients need to have as many as three or even more individual treatments before they'll have the full benefits from the procedure and realize that the snoring problem has been corrected. Costs for the RAUP procedure range anywhere from around $1,800 to $2,500, on average.
Palatal Implants
Yet another procedure that may work for snoring individuals whose primary concern is their soft palate is palatal implants. This is a very different treatment option from either laser-assisted or radio frequency-assisted surgery as no surgeon will be cutting at the back of your neck. Instead, three small polyester inserts are very carefully placed in the rear of the throat after you've undergone a local anesthetic. Additionally, palatal implants are also different since this kind of procedure focuses on stabilizing the front of the soft palate specifically under the nasal passages instead of the area at the back of the throat, which is where LAUP or RAUP is concentrated.
The polyester inserts are basically placed in the soft palate in an attempt to stiffen it, which has the same end-result as the RAUP procedure. Compared with surgical options for snoring, palatal implants carry even less of a risk, are relatively easy to insert by the surgeon and the patients who get them are able to return to regular activities soon after the operation is finished. Additionally, the insertion of palatal implants may also be reversed should significant side effects occur or there is some other reason that they should be removed. Also unlike surgical procedures, the three palatal implants that most patients require can be placed all at once instead of requiring multiple visits to an outpatient center or doctor's office. Palatal implants cost from around $1,000 to $2,500, on average.
Snoreplasty Injections
Yet another major option for snoring treatments are snoreplasty injections. This is a more recent snoring treatment option that's so new, as of 2011, that not all physicians may have access to it. Nevertheless, snoreplasty injections make use of a specific compound called Sotradecol that is intended to chemically scar the soft palate tissues in order to stiffen them.
Compared with other new treatments for snoring, snoreplasty injections are even less-invasive and cost considerably less as well. Distributed over around five to six months, the injections cost around $300 each. While Sotradecol might not always be available to your specialist, there are structurally-similar compounds and injection agents that work similarly and just as well, that is, if you're prepared to forgo the original snoreplasty agent.
Which Treatment is Best?
Whether your snoring problem gets resolved through the placement of palatal implants, with radio frequency-assisted uvulopalatoplasty or snoreplasty injections with a special substance, the treatment option of choice largely depends upon what your medical doctor recommends. Before you have the option to choose any of these new snoring treatments, most doctors would like patients to have a complete sleep study so that your issue can be correctly and thoroughly assessed. In some instances, it might be discovered that you're suffering from sleep apnea episodes during the night instead of simply snoring.
If this is the case and you really have osa, a whole array of other options are usually available and proposed rather than treatments meant to stiffen the soft palate. Actually, a much different treatment option is usually recommended, such as oral appliances and sleep apnea masks that can either keep the airway open or force air as you sleep, effectively reducing snoring as well as your sleep apnea symptoms.
After your sleep study, your doctor will review the results with you to determine the best strategy to take. If you're not diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, the options for taking care of your snoring typically expand and there are a variety of options you can try. Treatments range from the new treatments which have developed over the past decade to traditional solutions meant to improve the nasal passageways and keep them open.
For instance, you can wear snoring mouth guards, anti-snore strips or even try specialty nasal sprays. Whatever the case, your snoring ought to be relieved quickly with any of these options that your doctor can recommend and discuss. And there are other different types of cures such as using an anti snore ring or other stop snoring rings.
With the information above you now have a good idea of what types of remedies or treatments you may want to look into or consider to help solve your snoring problem. No one answer is best for all but by doing a little looking, you'll probably be able to find a solution that will work for you.