Beyond CPAP: Alternative Treatments for Severe Sleep Apnea

The National Sleep Foundation estimates that over 18 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a condition that influences The CPAP machine is the most often advised treatment for this illness, which can range in degree from mild to severe. Most patients stop with it, though, since it can be painful, loud, and cumbersome to wear.

Still, there are several other alternatives to CPAP, depending on certain criteria. While some are more invading, others are more handy. However, it’s crucial to learn more about the disorder itself before investigating choices for sleep apnea treatment in Turlock CA.

Signs and causes of sleep apnea

Overnight, sleep apnea causes recurrent pauses in breathing. Under the most prevalent kind, obstructive sleep apnea, the throat muscles relax, allowing the tissue in the rear of the throat to drop and block the airway.

Apart from making one tired during the day, sleep apnea is connected to other negative medical disorders. These cover type 2 diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Starting treatment right away will help to avoid issues like these.

Mild sleep apnea could react to changes in lifestyle, including:

• Weight loss: Among the main hazards of sleep apnea is obesity. Just losing 10% of your body weight will help to lessen apnea frequency. Researchers have discovered that one method of weight loss that can enable people to breathe more comfortably at night is by reducing tongue fat. Sometimes losing sufficient weight helps treat the disorder.
• Giving up smoking: Tobacco smoke can aggravate sleep apnea by swelling the airways.
• Abstaining from alcohol: Drinking before bed can induce the tissue to sag down into the upper airways to relax the muscles in there.
• Sleeping on the side: Back sleeping aggravates sleep apnea and snoring. To keep you on your side, sew a tennis ball into the back of your pajamas or use a wedge-shaped cushion.

More severe sleep apnea could call for an evaluation and treatment visit to a primary care physician or otolaryngologist—ear, nose, throat, or ENT specialist.

CPAP usage

Though evidence indicates it may be beneficial for those with mild sleep apnea, too, CPAP is a typical treatment for moderate-to-severe sleep apnea, short for continuous positive airway pressure. It entails a mask covering the mouth and nose worn during sleep. If one can keep their mouth closed during sleep, some people can use a mask covering just the nose.

Attached to a machine softly blowing air into the airways to maintain their openness is the mask.

Non-CPAP Choices

Should you have attempted lifestyle changes or CPAP for a few months and still experience sleep apnea, you could wish to discuss one of these surgeries to eliminate extra tissue so that it is no longer obstructing your throat:

• Custom-made by your dentist, oral appliances are meant to either hold the tongue in place to maintain the airway open as you sleep or push the lower jaw and tongue forward. Those who qualify may choose this alternative since it’s less expensive and more practical.
• Doctors remove big tonsils and adenoids occasionally to make more air passage possible. Some individuals, though, could still require CPAP treatment following surgery.
• Using radiofrequency energy, somnoplasty trims extra tissue in the upper airway.
• A deviated septum—an incorrectly aligned wall between the nasal passages that reduces the opening to one air route relative to the other—can be corrected by nasal surgery.
• Advancement of the mandible, or maxilla. This operation can permanently shift the jaw’s bones forward in cases of severe sleep apnea to help maintain the open airways.