Snoring &
Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Snoring and other Sleep Disordered Breathing:
Extremely common affecting 24% of male and 9% of female adults in the United States to a degree where it interferes with their lifestyle.

75 million Americans suffer from some sort of sleep disordered breathing and of those approximately 1 million are diagnosed with sleep apnea every year.

• Anatomy of the nose and throat
• Obesity
• Lifestyle — particularly the consumption of alcohol
• Aging, which decreases tissue elasticity

Snoring is noise caused by upper airway resistance, and usually produced in the soft palate, uvula, or by the back of the nose or tonsils and tongue. Treatments to decrease snoring focus on the removal of these anatomic structures; or in the case of the pillar procedure, stiffening the soft palate to decrease vibrations.

Apnea, meaning “no breath,” and Hypopnea, meaning “little breath,” are potentially life threatening diseases. They are usually due to collapse of pharyngeal structures during sleep. Significant health consequences include Hypertension (high blood pressure), Myocardial Infarction (Heart attack) and stroke. It is a frequent cause of sexual dysfunction, depression and morning headache. It is a major cause of daytime tiredness leading to inattention and increased risk of accident or poor work performance.