New Treatment Puts Snoring to Sleep for Sufferers
Ever since childhood, Paul Sinor’s slumber--and that of those around him--has been disrupted by his unusually loud snoring.
On ambush duty in Vietnam, Sinor’s fellow officers refused to let him sleep at night for fear that he would give away the unit’s position.
Just how loud was it? Sinor, a retired Army colonel, half-jokingly described it this way:
“If I was in good form and it was the right time of year, when I’d wake up in the mornings there’d be a small herd of female moose in my frontyard, and each one had either a rose or a bottle of wine in their hand because they thought it was mating season.”
Said his wife, Jewell: “I think his snoring was enough to bring the paint off the walls sometimes.”
So last fall, Sinor went to the Northwest Nasal Sinus Center in Seattle and became one of the first patients in the region to undergo somnoplasty, a new, permanent, relatively painless and bloodless way to treat chronic snoring.
The results, according to his wife, have been dramatic.
“This week I have slept so good all through the whole night that I can’t believe I don’t hear any more snoring. I’m thrilled,” she said recently.
About 40 million Americans snore loudly enough to disturb the sleep of the person they’re with. Snoring happens when the airway is not fully open; the noise comes from the efforts to breathe through the narrowed passageway.
For many, snoring is a social nuisance with no major medical consequences. For some, it can be symptomatic of more serious sleeping disorders such as apnea, a sudden stop in breathing.
Somnoplasty was developed by Somnus Medical Technologies of Sunnyvale, Calif. The company estimates that more than 1,000 people have been treated since the procedure was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last summer for treatment of snoring. The procedure is being tested, but has not yet been approved, for treatment for apnea.
During the procedure, the patient is injected with a local anesthetic, as in a dental procedure. Then a hand-held device, which is connected to a radio-frequency generator, is placed in the mouth. A small needle at the end of the device is inserted into the soft palate, the soft tissue in the upper rear of the mouth.
Unlike laser surgery, which cuts away tissue at high temperatures, the radio frequency energy directed through the needle tip “cooks” cells through shaking and disruption. Over a few weeks, the body naturally reabsorbs some of the tissue that’s been treated. The tightening of tissue and reduction of tissue volume frees space for easier breathing--and thus, less snoring.
The patient is in and out in less than 20 minutes.
“It’s no worse than probably having your teeth cleaned. And afterward almost no one bothers with any pain medication,” said Dr. Ludwig Allegra, who treated Sinor.
“It’s hard to argue with essentially a minimally invasive, painless procedure that really resolves what for many people is a very big problem.”
Allegra estimates that he has treated about 100 cases since his office got the Somnoplasty machine in November. The success rate with two treatments is between 85% and 90%, he said.
The procedure costs about $2,000 to $2,500 and usually isn’t covered by insurance, since snoring treatments are considered “cosmetic.” But Allegra said for chronic snorers, the benefits outweigh the cost.
“I see this as a very major advance because what it offers for the first time is a realistic cure for snoring, which can be a very major, disruptive problem to a lot of people,” Allegra said.
“It offers it in such a way as to not interfere with one’s life. Laser [surgery] works, but you’re looking at a fairly significant recovery period.”
Paul and Jewell Sinor both testify to the success of the procedure.
“My wife, she’s like my mother: ‘Why didn’t you do this a long time ago?’ ” Sinor said.
