Snoring Treatment

Snoring, which is often seen in men and overweight people, can be expressed as a condition that may actually affect everyone and get worse with age. Snoring, which reduces the quality of life of people as well as those around them, is not a disease in itself and should not be confused with sleep apnea. The main problem of snoring problem is that the tissues surrounding the airways make a sound while vibrating, but people with sleep apnea stop breathing during sleep.

What is Snoring?

The symptom, which is caused by difficulty in passing air through the respiratory tracts while breathing during sleep and vibrating soft tissues in the respiratory tract as a result of the narrowing of the airways, is called snoring. Both the general health and quality of life of the person are improved by determining the causes of snoring correctly and applying treatment for these reasons.

What are the Causes of Snoring?

Snoring caused by mechanical obstruction of air flow during mouth or nasal breathing may occur for many different reasons. I can list the causes for snoring as follows:

Problems causing nasal obstruction such as allergy, sinusitis, septum deviation, nasal polyps and concha hypertrophy may lead to snoring.
Low and thick soft palate and elongated uvula may cause snoring.
The presence of extra tissues that narrow the airways around the throat of people who often have excess weight problems may cause airway obstruction and snoring.
Swollen lymph nodes, tonsillitis and enlarged adenoid may be among the causes of snoring.

Factors that may result in physical inhibition of breathing and snoring may also include sleep on the back, obesity, alcohol abuse, weakness in throat muscles due to advancing age and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

It is known that people who snore have difficulty in concentrating during the day, are sleepy, have headaches in the morning, lose their productivity in school or work, and have an increased risk of work and traffic accidents. Snoring, which can also harm emotional relationships between spouses, may also be one of the reasons for divorce. Snoring treatment should not be neglected in order to increase the quality of life of both patients and their relatives.

Snoring Treatment – Snoring Surgery

Snoring treatment is planned after determining why the person snores. Snoring problem may sometimes be controlled by changing lifestyle, reviewing sleep position, losing weight, reducing alcohol consumption and exercising, while the options of septoplasty, concha surgery, endoscopic sinus surgery and “snoring surgery” may sometimes be evaluated.

Snoring Surgery – Somnoplasty

Radiofrequency waves are used in snoring surgery called “somnoplasty”. During the bloodless and painless somnoplasty, soft tissues blocking the airways are heated and their volumes are decreased, and as a result, the soft tissue and uvular region are displaced upwards and the sagging is reduced and removed. Somnoplasty is performed by reducing the soft palate region and cutting the uvula with radiofrequency in patients with mild snoring problems. Patients can return to their daily lives within a few hours after somnoplasty, which is performed under local anesthesia in a short time of 15-20 minutes.