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Posted by Cobi on October 02, 1997 at 09:08:58:In Reply to: Laser for sleep apnea posted by Barry on September 16, 1997 at 20:05:04:
If they have, it is probably rare. The site of the obstruction would have to have been on at the area of the soft pallet. However the majority of people have an obstruction at the base of the tongue or both. It can eliminate snoring while apnea continues. Sometimes called silent apnea. Silent apnea can be more dangerous than the loud snoring type because the bed partner is not aware if the severity of the apnea increases. The best thing is to find a surgeon who has a plan to possibly start there if they are not sure of the point of obstrucion and do a follow up study to see if there was a cure and if not go to stage 2 of moving the tongue forward. There is research going on to see if the base of the tongue can be shrunk. This would make the process much easier. Right now there are a few surgical methods for moving the tongue forward and in a very few cases the possibility of dental device to pull the tongue forward works. Bottom line find a surgeon who knows sleep disorders and has a proven track record of curing it completely with the criteria of a cure being a follow up sleep study approx. 6 months following the surgery. During that period you should remain on cpap. If using the dental device you could have the follow-up study sooner.
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