What is Snoring?

Normal Breathing

When you breathe normally, air passes through the nose and past the flexible structures in the back of the throat such as the soft palate, uvula and tongue.    While you are awake muscles hold your airway open.    When you fall asleep these muscles relax but normally the airway stays open.

Snoring

Snoring is the sound of obstructed breathing during sleep in which the soft tissues at the back of the throat lose muscle tone, flop back and vibrate.

While snoring can be harmless (benign snoring), it can also be the sign of a more serious medical condition which progresses from upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Snoring and sleepiness affects over 40% of the adult population, often causing significant health and quality of life problems.

Snoring can greatly disrupt the quality of sleep, resulting in excessive daytime sleepiness.    Snoring can also disturb the sleep of those nearby, causing great frustration and placing a strain on relationships.

Snoring has been identified as a possible risk factor for hypertension, heart disease and stroke and can be a symptom of a more serious medical condition called obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Snoring Treatments

Customized dental sleep appliances are regarded by sleep physicians as the best available snoring treatment.    Studies demonstrate they are over 95% effective in overcoming snoring to the satisfaction of the partner or those sleeping nearby.

Read more about dental sleep appliances

While dental sleep appliances and the CPAP machine are the main treatments for snoring and sleep apnea, there are other treatments which can be helpful.

Surgery of the soft palate is now a rarely used treatment for snoring.    There is a significant potential for side effects and the results are poor with most people snoring again within 12 months.

Screening for Snoring or Sleep Apnea (OSA)

Many patients are unsure if they suffer from serious snoring or apnea.

We have available to our patients very sophisticated home monitoring devices that can be used to screen for the potential problem.

Patients take home a small device to wear during sleep and return to us the next day.

We then can assess snoring patterns, sleep stages, potential apnea, hypopnea, pulse rate and oxygen saturation.     If needed an appropriate referral is then made to diagnose sleep apnea with a sleep study.