Posted by stillnotcured on November 01, 2009 at 14:32:48:In Reply to: tried everything! @ my wits end posted by monza66mo on October 29, 2009 at 07:16:57:
Nowadays if you go online to get the most up-to-date info about the mechanisms and causes of obstructive sleep apnea, you'll usually find that it mentions that the tongue falls back to obstruct the airway. These days obstructions at the soft palate is mentioned almost in passing, mainly as the cause of snoring and not so much for obstructive apnea anymore. UPPP does absolutely nothing to treat tongue obstructions.
If you're interested in surgical options for dealing with the tongue obstructions, I'd go visit the docs at Stanford (Palo Alto, CA). Nothing will beat real life surgical experience, the wisdom gained after doing several hundred (or is in the thousands now?) of surgeries that address these tongue obstructions. There's several surgical procedures that address tongue obstructions. From the very mild (somnoplasty to base of tongue) to the pretty intense (MMA - maxillo-mandibular advancement).