Excessive snoring significantly lowers a person’s sleep quality, whilst hampering their quality of life. They explore the internet for new snoring treatments and do whatever they can to put an end to it, stumbling upon the option of surgeries to stop snoring.
While they do put a permanent stop to snoring, it is the most drastic option available and is only considered a last resort.
Snoring is curable, and lifestyle changes such as improved nutrition and fitness to lose weight, avoiding alcohol before bed, addressing underlying allergies with nasal sprays or medications, and changing sleeping positions are often enough.
Interventions like nasal strips to keep the nasal passages open or oral mouthguards to keep the jaw in a consistent position that facilitates airflow are also trusted alternatives.
The final non-surgical option is the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) treatment where a mask connected to a machine is worn over the face during sleep.
This machine provides a continuous airflow into the nostrils at a pressure that keeps the airway open and more often than not, this resolves the issue.
When Should I Consider Surgeries to Stop Snoring?
If the above-mentioned remedies have all failed, you can bring up the possibility of surgical snoring procedures with your oral health specialist and primary care provider.
Most of them discourage surgeries unless the situation is extreme or there is a physical problem in your mouth, throat, or nasal passages that is causing you to snore.
This can be anything ranging from an excess of soft tissue to a structural problem like a misshaped air passage.
Any decisions regarding surgical procedures should be taken in collaboration with family, trusted ones, and medical professionals.
Types of Surgeries to Stop Snoring
There are many operations to stop snoring, varying from minimally invasive ones to highly technical ones.
Snoring is a result of soft tissue vibrations in your mouth and throat when there is an obstruction to the normal air passageway, and most surgeries make changes to these soft tissues themselves. Removing or stiffening these flappy tissues will make vibrations impossible, curing snoring.
However, structural deformities warrant the need for bigger procedures like changes to the skull or nerves. A comprehensive list of surgeries to stop snoring can be found below.
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP)
A lengthy and invasive procedure done under local anesthesia, a UPPP removes tissue from the soft palate, pharynx, and the back and top of the throat, including the uvula that lies at the throat’s opening.
Not only does this make breathing easier by keeping the airway more open, but a uvulopalatopharyngoplasty reduces the amount of flappy tissue that can vibrate to create the characteristic snoring sound.
You can no longer pronounce the uvular consonants after its removal but overall, this surgery’s complications rate is below 1%. However, This snoring surgery is only used when the soft tissue is in excess. Otherwise, there are safer alternatives.
Laser-Assisted Uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP)
Instead of cutting and removing the soft tissue in UPPP, a laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that uses carbon dioxide lasers to stiffen and remove the soft tissue from the nasopharynx for the same reasons described above. It is performed over 3 to 4 sessions, also under general anesthesia.
Somnoplasty
In a somnoplasty, an electrode is implanted in the soft palate tissue to emit low-frequency radiofrequency waves that create localized burn areas there, which stiffen upon fibrosis. Since radio heat energy is used to create hardening, this procedure is also called radiofrequency ablation, and this is the safest surgery to stop snoring.
Snoring worsens immediately after the procedure and improvement begin after a couple of weeks. However, medical research into the long-term efficacy of somnoplasty is still underway.
Pillar Procedure
Also known as palate surgery for snoring, the pillar procedure is the insertion of three to four polyester snoring implants into the soft palate. As the tissue surrounding these implants heals, the soft palate stiffens to reduce the likelihood of vibration.
This is a relatively new snoring treatment that is beneficial for treating simple snoring due to a soft palate problem, without any associated sleep apnea.
Septoplasty
Septoplasty is the snoring procedure used when you have a deviated septum that blocks airflow. Reshaping the cartilage and bone straightens the passage for air and stops snoring. This is usually performed in conjunction with a turbinate reduction which reduces the tissue in your nose that normally moistens and warms the air that enters.
Maxillofacial Surgeries
These are more drastic surgeries to stop snoring in the situation of structural deformities. These include:
- Maxillomandibular advancement (MMA) repositions the jaws to open the airway, by cutting and moving the lower jaw (mandible) forward
- Hyoid suspension where snoring procedures are performed on the ligaments that hold the hyoid bone, such as moving the base of the tongue, epiglottis, and this bone itself forward to open the airway
These surgeries have a long and painful recovery period.
Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation
Performed only on people with obstructive sleep apnea in whom CPAP has failed as well, stimulating the hypoglossal nerve with an electrical snoring implant can contract the upper airway muscles to open them. The implanted electrode can detect when the person is not breathing properly during sleep and send an impulse to the hypoglossal nerve via a generator.
The Bottom Line
Opting for surgery to stop snoring is a huge decision that needs to be carefully evaluated. Without insurance, the procedure costs upward of 10,000$ and you need to consider possible side effects like pain, the physical discomfort of feeling like there is something in your throat, infection, change in voice, and trouble breathing.
Unfortunately, there is also a chance of the snoring operation not working. All these factors need to be discussed with a primary care physician before taking this decision and if there is a possibility, lifestyle changes and non-surgical devices should always take precedence.
