Snoring can be a very troublesome complaint. A bed partner kept awake by a snorer night after night suffers sleep deprivation, restless sleep and daytime tiredness.
Noisy nocturnal breathing may also be more than just an annoyance to a bed partner, but can also cause significant health problems to the snorer.
Sleep Apnoea in adults and children is known to cause a number of serious health effects. Poor and interrupted sleep causes daytime tiredness, poor concentration and impaired study. A poor nights sleep leads to poor functioning at work and school. A child with chronic snoring even without sleep apnoea is known to have a reduction in their tested IQ of 10-15 points without treatment. Adults with significant sleep apnoea have an increased risk of Hypertension, Ischaemic Heart Disease, motor car accidents and Cerebral Vascular Accidents if sleep apnoea is untreated.
At the Melbourne Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Centre we believe a thorough airway examination to find the cause for your snoring and sleep apnoea is essential. Our trained upper airway surgeons will examine you thoroughly to ascertain the site, the cause and the extent of your snoring and sleep apnoea, and give you a diagnosis and the best management plans to improve your snoring and sleep apnoea.
A thorough airway examination is then combined with a sleep study to confirm the site and levels of your sleep apnoea and allow a management plan to be formulated for you.
No longer is a CPAP machine the only treatment available for sleep apnoea and snoring. Modern treatments will be tailored for the individual patient and may include surgery, weight loss, and the use of positive pressure (CPAP) masks, or mandibular advancement devices, where appropriate.
Nasal surgery is often undertaken to aid or enable the use of devices, such as the CPAP mask.
