Snoring Surgery: Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty

I wanted to take a little time to discuss snoring surgery and in particular the procedure known as uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. I know that this is a very large word and it you?ve probably never heard of it other than from your doctor. It is a procedure that is used to open of the airways in your throat by removing excessive tissue like the uvula, soft palate, pharynx, tonsils, adenoids and any other throat tissue that could be getting in the way. This isn?t something that is used exclusively for snoring, but it can be used for conditions like sleep apnea.

I?m not a very big fan of surgery for the reason that it is over the top in a lot of cases. I know a lot of you are looking to get a solution for your problem as fast as you possibly can, but I think this is a little much. I?m not here to over rid the opinions of your physician. I think in the case of snoring, surgery is not the solution. When you?re talking about another condition like sleep apnea you definitely need to talk to your doctor because that is a much more dangerous condition to have.

If you decide to go for the uvulopalatopharyngoplasty procedure then you can expect to have a recovery time of around 3 weeks. Your throat is going to be very tender during that time. It will be difficult to swallow and it could actually get quite painful. In the case of snoring this procedure is used, but only in the most extreme cases. It is only used when other treatments have failed and this is something that can be verified at WebMD.

I went into detail on what causes snoring here, but there can be the extreme case where there is physically too much tissue in the airways and you end up with sounds. A very small group of people out there will run into this problem. You probably think you have the worst problem in the world and that you need the snoring surgery. The fact is that you probably don?t. A doctor will advise you on this if that is the case. Don?t self-diagnose yourself because there are easier ways to stop snoring that you?re probably not even aware of.

What is Laser-Assisted Uvulopalatoplasty?

This is the regular procedure that is performed using lasers. This is something that is approved by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine for treatment of sleep apnea. But there is still a lot of debate regarding the effectiveness it has toward apnea. Snoring works and it?s a lot less complicated than going through with full surgery.

Snoring Aids

You should definitely look into getting some sort of snoring aid before you go down the surgery route. You can avoid a lot of costly medical costs and you can do it without any risks. This is really the reason why I created a site on snoring aids because I don't think they're being used as much as they should be. Everyone seems to be going for something too expensive and quite risky.

Tonsillectomy

This is yet another type of snoring surgery that you can go through, even though this particular procedure is used for more than just treating snoring. This is actually a procedure that has been around for around 2000 years. They remove the tonsils from either side of the throat area. Sometimes they?ll do an adenoidectomy at the same time. In that case they are removing the adenoids. Adults really aren?t the ones getting this procedure though. It is mainly children that get it today.

Somnoplasty

This is an FDA approved treatment for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. This one is a lot different than the other types of surgery. They use radio frequency energy on the tissues in your throat to help shrink them. This is something that you don?t have to go to the hospital for. You just go for an appointment at a doctor office for 30 minutes and then you go home. The idea behind the radio frequency is to provide low power energy create coagulative lesions on the tissue in the throat area. It sounds a lot more complicated that way. Simply put, it is a way to shrink the tissue in your throat that is causing the problem.

This is a pretty detailed list of snoring surgeries that you can get for this problem. I bet some of the words used weren?t even in your vocabulary. Personally I think surgery is going to the extreme though. Unless your doctor is recommending it to you then I wouldn?t try it. There are plenty of snoring solutions that you can use, which will easily fix this problem. For example, the Jaw Supporter does an excellent job.

About Author: Charles Nash is a dedicated health enthusiast that has struggled with snoring most of his life. Through tedious studying and understanding of the problem he was able to beat it. The information on this page is copyrighted. You are only allowed to republish this information on your site if you provide a link directly back to this page and leave all links within the article in place.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor. The opinions expressed here are of the author only. All information is for education purposes only. If you plan to use any information first discuss it with licensed physician that is well aware of your medical history.