Can rhinoplasty help with snoring?Contoura Facial Plastic Surgery

TRANSCRIPTION

Hi, I'm Dr. Garcia from Contoura Facial Plastic Surgery. And I wanted to talk today a little bit about the effects of how rhinoplasty might improve snoring at nighttime. And it's a question that I get asked very, very frequently, usually by the spouses who are concerned with what effects we might see with snoring after a rhinoplasty is performed. First, let me explain a couple things about what snoring is. From an anatomical standpoint, snoring occurs because there's vibration within either the nasal cavity or the oral or pharyngeal cavities. And so when air passes through these particular structures, as they vibrate, they make noise. There's a distinction, however, between snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. And so obstructive sleep apnea or OSA, is actually the process whereby you end up stopping breathing due to one of those obstructions. And so snoring doesn't always necessarily equate to obstructive sleep apnea.

And so obstructive sleep apnea has, of course, its deleterious longterm effects of causing high blood pressure and causing issues with pulmonary hypertension and ultimately can cause some more serious life threatening issues. And so if we see a patient who has significant obstructive sleep apnea, we will refer them to an otolaryngologist who performs sleep apnea surgery. Now getting back to the actual snoring process that's occurring as a result of nasal deformity, almost always it's due to the septum, which is that central partition that divides the nose into the right and the left side and that septum is deviated one way or the other, so when air passes through that narrowed cavity, it forms a turbulence of air and that causes a vibratory pattern, causing the sound that makes up snoring. And so probably 99% of the time, even though patients tell me that they feel that they breathe great, I still look into their nose during the surgery and I'll straighten out some kind of indolent non pathological deviation to their septum.

Get on our website, on the section of nasal surgery and you might find a little bit more information in terms of how that might help. But as always, you're always free to come in and see us in consultation. We definitely will carve out some time for you and explain this in a little bit more detail. I hope this video has helped, and if there's anything you ever need, just give us a call. Thank you. Have a great day.