Snoring can be a real problem for some people. The quiet of a peaceful night can be interrupted by loud snores, keeping others in the household awake.
The reasons why a person snores can be complex. As your body moves into a deep sleep, all of the muscles (except the respiratory system) relax. The air moving through your mouth and nose as you breathe can cause relaxed tissue to vibrate, producing an audible sound that is identified as a snore.
The effects of snoring can range anywhere from mild annoyance to serious medical problems, so it's important that you work closely with your doctor to determine when surgical correction for your snoring is needed.
Polysomnography
The first thing that will occur when you begin contemplating surgery for your snoring is the administration of a polysomnography test. A polysomnography is designed to detect any abnormalities in a person's sleep patterns.
You will spend the night in a specialized facility and sleep while hooked up to monitoring devices. If you have a more serious sleep condition, like sleep apnea, a doctor will be able to make this diagnosis based on the results of your polysomnography.
Since snoring is one of the symptoms associated with common sleep disorders, your doctor will want to ensure that there isn't something more serious going on before scheduling you for surgery. Alternate therapies can be used to address both your sleep disorder and your snoring if your sleep study reveals the presence of a disorder.
Septoplasty
Once your doctor has ruled out a sleep disorder as being the root cause of your snoring, he or she will attempt to discover why you snore so loudly prior to scheduling surgery. Many people snore as a result of a deviated septum.
The septum, which is the bone and cartilage that separates the nasal cavity, can be out of alignment without a person realizing it. Some people are born with a deviated septum, while others develop one over time as a result of injury to the nose.
A septoplasty is a surgical procedure your doctor can use to help open up the smaller nasal passage in order to improve airflow. This could help to reduce the obstruction being created by a deviated septum and prevent the air you are breathing at night from creating vibrations within your nasal passage.
A septoplasty is a simple outpatient procedure that doesn't require much healing time. The procedure can be performed in a surgical center, so there is no need to worry about a lengthy hospital stay following the correction of your deviated septum. Contact a sleep apnea surgeon for more help.
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