Anti-snoring surgery is never something that should be undertaken lightly, even when it’s done out of medical necessity. A general anaesthetic is a big shock for the human body and can carry the dangers of cardiovascular complications. Even if it’s a local anaesthetic, the surgery will permanently alter your body.
Before considering surgery, you should explore all the options. Such as an anti-snoring mouthpiece (a type of mouthguard you wear at night, which pulls the lower jaw slightly forward) or other anti-snoring devices.
In the uncommon event that these fail you, you may want to then look into surgery for your snoring. Below we explore some of the more common surgeries available. Although the effectiveness of these is never guaranteed.
Uvulopalataplasty
This is one of the most common anti-snoring surgeries and, as it’s generally done under local anaesthetic with the assistance of lasers, it’s relatively safe. It involves the shortening of the soft palate and cutting away some of the uvula. This helps reduce the chances of these two vibrating when air flows over them.
This surgery can be repeated several times until effective results have been achieved. Although safe, the recovery pain is quite high. The results are not guaranteed as permanent though. The surgery won’t help with sleep apnea.
Genioglossus Advancement
If you have an anti-snore device or a CPAP Machine which, for whatever reason, isn’t helping with your Obstructive Sleep Apnea, then you may have to consider surgery like this, for the sake of your health. The surgery involves tightening the Genioglossus tendon (responsible for a lot of the tongue’s mobility) located towards the front of the tongue.
This stops it from collapsing as easily and blocking the breathing passage. This is usually done along with other surgeries and, as you can probably tell, is somewhat invasive and carries some risk of muscle and nerve damage. Although limited.
Maxillomandibular Advancement
Although incredibly effective for curing obstructive sleep apnea, this surgery is often considered a last resort for people looking at different measures of treatment as it’s the most invasive. It involves permanently pushing the lower and upper jaw forward. This forces the soft palate and uvula to move forward as well, creating a smooth passage of air and effectively eliminating the chance of vibration.
This surgery has a very long recovery time, has been described as incredibly painful and, due to the jaw displacement, will permanently alter your appearance. It’s a surgery that replicates the effect of an anti-snore mouthpiece. So you may just be easier off if you buy one of those.
Radio-Frequency Ablation
This is one of the most recent anti-snoring surgeries to emerge in the medical industry. The surgery shrinks unneeded parts of the soft palate by burning them. Often called a somnoplasty, these controlled lesions then harden and the chance of snoring is reduced. Like the uvulopalatoplasty, the procedure can be repeated multiple times and has lower recovery pain.
It is minimally invasive but has low success rates on people with high body fat, who are the most at risk for snoring and sleep apnea. Although relatively safe, the surgery is also quite new so many traditional medical practitioners tend not to offer it.
