Can Rhinoplasty Correct Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder that affects a person during the time they are sleeping. A person with this condition will experience moments during sleep where their breathing is paused. Some people breathe in a shallow manner instead of having pauses in their breathing. These breathing pauses only last a few seconds, but they can occur up to thirty times in an hour. After each pause, the breathing normalizes again and is often punctuated with a snort or choking sound. As a rhinoplasty specialist, I strive to keep my Montreal practice on the leading edge of innovative solutions for both

Sleep apnea is a chronic issue that can affect sleep patterns. Instead of getting a full night’s restful sleep, people often wake the next day feeling unrested. People with sleep apnea can be affected throughout the day and experience periods where they doze off because they are exhausted. The condition can go undiagnosed because there are no regularly administered tests that can detect this condition. There is research that is currently being conducted to find a way to identify and diagnose the condition.

Most people are unaware that they suffer from this disorder because they are asleep at the time that the symptoms are occurring. You may ask your doctor if there is a sleep testing clinic in your local area to be observed overnight in a sleep lab. Observation will let you know once and for all if you have sleep apnea. One question that people want to be answered though, is whether or not rhinoplasty can correct sleep apnea.

Will Rhinoplasty Correct Sleep Apnea?

In many cases, having surgery would not make a significant difference. A study was conducted in 2014 to find out if rhinoplasty was the right procedure to improve nasal airflow where a patient was suffering from sleep apnea. Three groups were included in the research study. The first group had mild sleep apnea; the second group has moderate sleep apnea, and the third group suffered from the most significant cases of obstruction sleep apnea. Each patient underwent surgery to see if there would be a difference after completion of that operation.

The result was that the mild and moderate sufferers of sleep apnea did not see a significant difference in symptoms. The group that had the most severe sleep apnea did experience an important reduction of symptoms. That is good news because serious sufferers of this condition can benefit from the different rhinoplasty procedures that can be completed for the reduction of symptoms. For those who use a CPAP machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), nasal surgery can be helpful because it opens up the nasal passages more to allow air to flow more easily into the lungs. Surgery is useful for sleep apnea, but it is not a cure. You should contact a surgeon for a consultation to see if this procedure will help you.