What is sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea is a common breathing disorder that affects millions of people.
Your throat has muscles that hold open your airway and allow you to breathe in
and out. If you have sleep apnea, those muscles relax too much while you’re
sleeping. This makes the airway close. Your brain notices this, and wakes you up
so you’ll start breathing again. If this happens a lot, you won’t sleep well,
and you could feel sleepy and unable to think straight during the day.
Sleep apnea is serious. It can increase the risk for, or worsen, some medical
conditions, and increase the chance of having an accident at work or while
driving. In some cases, these effects of sleep apnea may be bad enough that your
doctor will consider surgery to solve the problem.
What are the signs or symptoms of sleep apnea?
The most common signs of sleep apnea are loud snoring and choking or gasping
during sleep, and being very sleepy during the day. You may also wake up with
headaches or a dry throat, and have trouble concentrating during the day.
How is sleep apnea diagnosed?
Many people never know for sure if they have sleep apnea. Doctors usually
can't detect it during routine office visits, and there are no blood tests for
it. Most people who have sleep apnea do not really know it because sleep apnea
only occurs during sleep.
Doctors diagnose sleep apnea by asking you questions about your medical
history and your family’s medical past, and performing a physical exam. Your
doctor may also want to order a "sleep study" in which your breathing and sleep
patterns are monitored.
How is sleep apnea treated?
The goal of treatment is getting you back to having regular breathing during
sleep. Your doctor may recommend lifestyle changes such as losing weight or
changing your sleeping position. He or she may also prescribe a mouthpiece that
helps keep your airway open, or a breathing device that pushes air down your
throat into your lungs. In cases where these other treatments don’t work or if
you have large tonsils, your doctor may want to send you to a surgeon to try
surgery to fix the problem. It’s important to keep in mind that no surgery works
for everyone, and all have possible side effects.
Surgical Procedures
The alignment of the bones and tissue in the jaw, mouth, and throat can cause
sleep apnea. The most common surgical options reduce or totally remove the
tissue in the throat that is blocking your airway while you sleep. This tissue
can be in the soft palate, which is at the back of the roof of your mouth; the
uvula ("that little thing that hangs down in the back of your throat"), your
tonsils and adenoids, which are in the back of your throat; or your tongue.
There are also surgeries to correct the alignment of the bones in the mouth,
nose, and face.