31 Jan Snoring surgery: How snoring therapy can help you

If you wake up in the morning with a raw throat and feel like you've been screaming loudly all night, then you've probably been snoring heavily. Snoring can affect your health, but it can also have an impact on your partner's healthy sleep. You should therefore have it checked why you snore. The causes often lie in the nasopharyngeal area. In this article, we explain what treatment is possible and when you need an operation to stop snoring.

Pathological snoring: With breathing interruptions

Pathological snoring is different. In this case, the loud noise is a side effect of a sleep-related breathing disorder. As a result, the oxygen supply in the body is no longer sufficient, leading to dangerous sleep apnoea. Breathing stops for a few seconds or even minutes - more than five times in an hour. The consequences: Sleep no longer provides the necessary rest. Pathological snorers often suffer from severe daytime sleepiness, they feel tired, lack concentration and are less productive. Their memory performance also often deteriorates. Some patients who suffer from sleep apnoea repeatedly nod off involuntarily and suddenly for a few seconds during the day - which can be very dangerous in road traffic, for example. Headaches and a dry mouth in the morning also indicate sleep apnoea.

Sleep apnoea can also lead to long-term damage: When breathing stops during sleep, this briefly puts the body into a state of alarm. As a result, it repeatedly activates the autonomic nervous system, which causes blood pressure and heart rate to rise. Permanent high blood pressure increases the risk of heart failure, a heart attack or a stroke.

Snoring surgery: When is surgery advisable?

If you snore repeatedly over a longer period of time and notice symptoms such as daytime sleepiness, you should make an appointment with us at the ENT clinic in Frankfurt agree. Your treating ENT specialist Dr Thomas Fischer will examine you and check whether there are any anatomical reasons that could be causing your snoring. These include impaired nasal breathing due to a deviated nasal septum, conchal enlargement, polyps or similar. A flaccid and enlarged soft palate, an elongated and flaccid uvula and a tongue that falls back during sleep, narrowing the palate, can also lead to snoring. Another cause is severely enlarged palatine tonsils, which constrict the palate during sleep.

In some cases, an additional examination in a specialised sleep laboratory is necessary. This will determine whether your snoring is habitual or pathological.

If you are diagnosed with sleep apnoea, you do not have to undergo surgery immediately. Some patients are helped by night-time oxygen therapy with a breathing mask. If this therapy does not bring the desired success, an operation can help.

If you suffer from a harmless form of snoring and are bothered by it, you can also undergo surgery. There are various surgical methods to treat your snoring. Which snoring therapy is used for you depends on your individual clinical picture or the initial anatomical situation.

Snoring surgery: procedures on the palate and soft palate

An oversized or sagging Palate can cause you to snore intensely as it relaxes, especially at night when lying on your back. This causes the airflow to vibrate, which generates noise. In this case, we can surgically tighten or reduce the posterior part of the palate using various techniques. If the snoring is caused by an excessively large uvula, we can perform a so-called uvula flap. This involves folding up the uvula on the palate, suturing it in place and fixing it.

The classic form of snoring surgery is uvula palato pharyngoplasty. This is a soft palate tightening procedure in which we incise, tighten and stitch back together the mucous membrane on your palate, throat and uvula. The tightened palate prevents your upper airways from narrowing during sleep. It is also possible to remove the palatine tonsils at the same time.

Snoring surgery: procedures on the nose itself

It is often a curvature of the nasal septum that causes snoring. It leads to constrictions in the nasal passages - less air flows out of one nostril than the other. By means of a Nasal septum surgery we correct the curvature and thus straighten the septum.

Snoring can also be caused by nasal polyps. These are soft, benign mucosal growths in the paranasal sinuses. They can range in size from a few millimetres to several centimetres. Sometimes the polyps respond to treatment with decongestant medication. If this is not the case, a minimally invasive Paranasal sinus surgery help. We remove the polyp using special instruments with microscopic and endoscopic support.

In many cases, snoring is also associated with enlarged turbinates. Three turbinates are naturally located in each nasal cavity. They protrude into the nasal cavity from the side and consist of thin bony plates covered with mucous membrane. Between them is a cavernous body. If this is heavily supplied with blood, the turbinate in question swells and enlarges. In some patients, this is a permanent condition that impedes breathing. The remedy is the so-called Laser conchotomy in our practice in Frankfurt. Laser treatment of the turbinates leads to targeted shrinkage of the tissue so that your turbinates can no longer swell too much. This keeps your nasal breathing free. If your snoring is related to turbinate hyperplasia, you will now have quieter nights.

Snoring surgery Frankfurt

Snoring can be very annoying and put a strain on a relationship. Separate bedrooms are often the result. Please come to our practice if you snore regularly. We will examine you and suggest a customised therapy.

ENT Frankfurt: Dr Thomas Fischer & Dr Albrecht Linke

Your specialists for ear, nose and throat medicine, who will provide you with professional and individualised advice, examinations and treatment in all matters relating to ENT medicine, functional plastic surgery and the aesthetic treatment of changes to the facial skin.

Our news articles are prepared for you to the best of our knowledge and belief and are intended for general education. They are in no way a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis and treatment and are not intended to encourage self-diagnosis or self-treatment. Please always contact your ENT specialist in Frankfurt directly if you have any health complaints!

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