Somnoplasty

This surgical technique can be part of the multidisciplinary treatment of snoring and mild sleep apnoea. Any patient who snores and is searching for an improvement should first see an ENT surgeon who works in a multidisciplinary sleep disorder team involving an orthodontist, dietician and respiratory physician.

Somnoplasty is indicated for those patients who are predominantly palatal snorers, who are not suitable for less invasive anti-snoring treatment, and who choose not to have laser palatoplasty under local anaesthetic.

The technique involves numbing the soft palate with small anaesthetic injections. Once this has been completed, tiny fibres are inserted into the soft palate using a special hand piece connected to the Somnoplasty machine. When the fibres are in place, the machine is activated, and this causes radio - type waves to be emitted from the fibres, causing local damage to the muscles of the soft palate. This damage heals over a few days after the procedure, with resultant scarring and the laying down of fibrous tissue in the palate. This means that the palate will shorten slightly and more importantly, stiffen.

It is the stiffening that causes the main snoring improvement, because it means that the palate will not flap as easily at night, with a significant reduction on the loudness of palatal snoring being the consequence of this. Because it is natural that any stiff tissue that is not meant by nature to be there, will unstiffen with time, it follows that snoring will slowly return with time (approximately 6 months would seem reasonable). Once snoring becomes symptomatic again, the procedure can safely be repeated. With multiple treatments, it seems likely that a more permanent reduction in snoring will occur.

The alternative to Somnoplasty is a laser palatoplasty under local anaesthetic, which is more definitive because the soft palate is actually removed rather than stiffened. However, this one-off procedure is rather more painful than Somnoplasty, and that is why Somnoplasty can play an alternative role in some cases of palatal snoring.

Pricing:

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