Our Services ~ Sleep Disorders

There are two main categories of snoring. The first is cosmetic snoring, which is noise that other people find objectionable. The second is sleep apnea, where you're breathing actually stops intermittently while you're snoring.

Snoring can be caused by a narrowing of the nose or throat. Most snoring is caused by an enlarged soft palate and uvula at the back of the mouth, and snoring occurs when floppy tissue in the airway relaxes during sleep and vibrates. Possible causes may include a deviated nasal septum, nasal polyps, allergies, chronic rhinitis, a floppy soft palate, enlarged tonsils, or large tongue.

Sleep apnea is a condition when breathing actually stops repetitively throughout the night during episodes of snoring. It is a serious health hazard and can lead to high blood pressure heart disease or stroke. Patients typically experience daytime sleepiness, severe snoring, morning headaches, and poor concentration.

Treatment options for this condition are weight loss, avoiding alcohol at night, nasal CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), and surgery to remove the tonsils, and trim the soft palate and uvula.

A new treatment option for snoring is somnoplasty, an FDA-approved medical treatment performed under local anesthesia. Using very low levels of radiofrequency waves that are delivered through a small needle-like probe inserted in the patient's palate, the procedure permanently alters the shape of the soft palate by gently reducing and stiffening the tissue areas responsible for snoring.

Because patients are awake and comfortable during the procedure, they return to normal activities immediately, and during the next four to six weeks they experience a gradual decrease in snoring until it's no longer a problem in most cases.