What is Sleep Apnea & Snoring?
Can’t get a good night’s sleep? You may be suffering from sleep apnea, a common disorder that affects as many as 18 million Americans. Although most common in adults ages 40-60, sleep apnea affects people of all ages.
Less severe, but still troublesome for millions of us, is loud or excessive snoring while asleep. To learn more about how our office can help with these problems, explore this page.
Sleep Apnea Overview
Click to watch Dr. Tipirneni discuss sleep apnea and snoring.
Things to Know About Sleep Apnea & Snoring
Sleep apnea and snoring affect millions of Americans. Review the information below to determine some of the common signs, symptoms and treatment options.
Major Signs & Symptoms
- Loud and chronic snorting and grunting while asleep
- Choking, snorting, or gasping during sleep
- Long pauses in breathing
- Daytime sleepiness, no matter how much time you spend in bed
- Throat weakness
Common Signs & Symptoms
- Waking up with a dry mouth or sore throat
- Morning headaches
- Restless or fitful sleep
- Insomnia or nighttime awakenings
- Going to the bathroom frequently during the night
- Waking up feeling out of breath
- Forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating
Nonsurgical Treatments
- Losing Weight
- Avoiding alcohol and sleeping pills
- Changing sleep positions to promote regular breathing
- Stop smoking
- Avoid sleeping on your back
Additional Treatments
If the conservative approaches are not working, you may want to consider surgery, or medical procedures such as a genioglossal advancement, hyoid suspension, somnoplasty, somnoguard, robotic lingual tonsillectomy, UPPP or snoreplasty.
Consultations for these snoring and sleep apnea procedures are available at any one of our four Central Florida area offices in Winter Park, Downtown Orlando, Winter Garden, Altamonte and Celebration.
AirLift™ lets you sleep and breathe better with one of the most advanced and less intrusive obstructive sleep apnea relief procedures available today.Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) impacts an estimated 12 million adults in the United States. In Orlando, AirLift™ is a new less intrusive and highly effective treatments to open and stabilize upper airway obstruction.
The procedure is less invasive than traditional surgeries which require the removal or cutting of the jaw bone or excising portions of the tongue base, thereby allowing for faster recovery times and less discomfort for patients.
In this surgical procedure, the base of the tongue is pulled forward to increase the size of the airway due to a physical deformity or a sleep breathing disorder. During the procedure a small “window” is made in the lower jaw allowing the surgeon to place an attachment that will pull the tongue forward and down. The procedure is effective at treating obstructive sleep apnea with success rates of above 50%.
This procedure is used to anchor the hyoid bone in place and thus reduce airway blockage that leads to obstructive sleep apnea. The operation advances the tongue base and epiglottis forward opening the breathing passageway. Through a small incision in a skin crease in the upper neck, the procedure detaches two tendons on the upper surface of the hyoid bone and some of the muscle on the lower surface, allowing the hyoid to be advanced over the “Adam’s apple” and secured into position. The procedure can typically completed in less than an hour and the voice remains unaffected.
Inspire therapy works inside your body, and with your natural breathing process, to treat sleep apnea. It continuously monitors your breathing patterns while you sleep. Based on your unique breathing patterns, the system delivers mild stimulation to key airway muscles, which keeps the airway open.
A minimally-invasive, in-office procedure, snoreplasty is used to reduce or eliminate snoring. In snoreplasty, a topical anesthetic is applied to numb the back of the throat. Once numb, a sclerosing agent is injected into the palate, causing the roof of the mouth to stiffen and thus stopping or reducing the fluttering of the palate and reducing or eliminating snoring. The procedure involves little pain, virtually no recovery time and is considered very effective.
Used to treat habitual snoring, somnoplasty removes tissues of the uvula and soft palate using very low levels of radiofrequency heat energy to create “burn-areas” beneath the soft tissues of the throat. As healing occurs, the tissue effectively shrinks, creating more space in the passageway for air and therby reducing snoring symptoms. The procedure is done in an outpatient setting and takes approximately 30-45 minutes to conclude.
A prefabricated, custom-fit plastic device designed to reduce the sound of snoring, SomnoGuard® is used by the wearer at night to lower your jaw slightly forward and create a larger, more stable passageway for air to pass through. The device is FDA approved and covered by most insurances in cases of documented mild or moderate sleep apnea. It can be fit during a quick office visit.
Transoral Robotic Lingual Tonsillectomy is a computer-assisted, minimally-invasive procedure to treat sleep apnea, this revolutionary procedure is currently only being performed by our Dr. Jeffrey J. Lehman in the Central Florida area. The leading-edge surgery offers Dr. Lehman imparoved visibility and the ability to move surgical instruments in tight, hard to reach locations while precisely enlarging the lower airway. The end result for patients is severely reduced sleep apnea symptoms with reduced discomfort and a shorter recovery time when compared to the older, open lingual tonsillectomy procedure.
A procedure used to remove excess tissue in the throat, a uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) makes the airway wider to treat obstructive sleep apnea. Following surgery and recovery, the wider airway allows more air to move through the throat as you breathe, reducing or eliminating the severity of sleep apnea and some snoring conditions.
