Apnea is a Greek word which means “without breath”. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder due to which patient faces frequent pauses of breathing while sleeping. And it’s not one or two times, it’s almost hundred times in a night and lasts for at least a minute. Sleep apnea is a chronic disease, means once it is diagnosed, it lasts for a lifetime.
Sleep apnea cures are not discovered till now, as stated by the National institute of health. But the doctors suggest that the proper treatment is necessary for the patient to reduce the effects of sleep apnea. The treatment helps in decreasing the severity of the disorders in breath at night. With the help of these treatments a lot of people are cured of the severe effects of sleep apnea.
Actually, sleep apnea is of three major types; obstructive, central, and mixed. The most common one is obstructive which is characterized by physical obstructions of the airway. Obstructive sleep apnea cures are changes in lifestyle or a surgery. You can reduce major symptoms of sleep apnea by limiting alcohol, using a special pillow for sleep apnea, lose weight, and by quitting smoking. There are oral appliances available in the market that will keep the airways open and it also prevents the jaw or tongue from relaxing to cause obstructions.
The most commonly used methods to cure sleep apnea is the use of continuous positive airway pressure machines or CPAPs. Actually, this method does not cure the sleep apnea disorder but it helps to prevent the sleep apnea events during sleep. Continuous positive airway pressure machines work via a medical pump and a flexible tube which attaches to a face mask and it pushes a controlled stream of air into the patient’s airway during sleep. The stream of air actually acts as a splint which keeps the airway open to prevent the breath pauses to occur.
Another treatment for the patients with sleep apnea is surgery. Different methods of surgery are discovered in sleep apnea patients such as widen the airways and removing of tissues, which help in preventing the obstruction. Sleep apnea cures through surgery, may remove the adenoids or tonsils and the excess tissues which are situated inside the nose or back of the throat. Sometimes surgeons may also reconstruct the jaw of the patient for the cure of sleep apnea. These methods include surgical instruments for sleep apnea cure like laser, scalpel and microwaving instruments.
Sometimes surgeons identify the various parts of the airways which are creating problems in breathing like soft palate, nose and tongue. The patients with sleep apnea have verified these surgical methods, which the surgeons have been using for a long time.
The use of sleep apnea cures removes the basic cause of the obstructive sleep apnea but you need to consider some crucial points such as go for anesthesia or a surgery is always a risk for the patient. There is also a possibility that one surgery might not enough for the patient to cure the disorder, which would result in the sequence of surgeries over time that is harmful for the patient.
Surgical sleep apnea cures may cause several side effects for the patient such as swelling of the throat and severe pain. So, if the surgery goes unsuccessful, then there is another treatment available for the sleep apnea patients that might helpful.