Snoring
What's that noise?
What's that noise?
-When you breathe, you push air through your mouth, nose and throat. A blockage in your airway can cause these tissues to vibrate against each other. The vibrations make a rumbling, rattling noise that we call snoring.
Blockage can be from soft palate (the back of the roof of your mouth). tonsils, adenoids or the tongue.
Overalp of disease
What's that noise?
Often, there is an overlap of disease. Those people who mostly snore, will often overlap and develop Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Snoring matters
Vibrations caused by snoring damages nerve endings in soft palate. Like your hands going numb after using a chainsaw.
This weakens muscles further aggravating snoring
Snoring causes daytime sleepiness.
Adults
Adults
Adults who snore long term are at higher risk of:
High blood pressure
Heart disease
Stroke
kids
Adults
kids
Kids who snore long term are at a higher risk of:
Behavior issues
Learning challenges
Asthma
ADHD
How myofunctional therapy can help with snoring
Restore proper nasal breathing
One of our first goals is to gain an awareness of breathing through the nose day and night. This can be more tricky than just changing a habit immediately. If your mouth doesn't remain closed at night, your tongue can fall in your airway. That is where small exercises and my expertise will help problem solve and guide you to better breathing.
Restoring proper tongue posture
Ideally, we have our tongue suctioned up in roof of the mouth. Low tongue posture will cause tongue to fall into airway at night and cause snoring or other sleep disordered breathing habits. Myofunctional Therapy is physical therapy for your tongue and surrounding muscles. Small exercises over time help restore proper tongue posture, thus reducing snoring.
Screening for Tongue tie
For some, restoring proper tongue posture is restricted physically by a tongue tie. A tiny piece of tissue that attaches from the tongue to the floor of the mouth. If so, a tongue tie release is needed. I only refer to trusted professionals for evaluation and treatment if needed.
Strengthening soft palate
Your soft palate is what your uvula (hangy thing) is attached to. This muscle strength can decrease over time and be a culprit for snoring. We can strengthen this with Myofunctional Therapy!
Seeking out a sleep study
I may recommend a sleep study to find out the severity and specific sleep disordered breathing habit. This is done with a provider that understands and screens for the full spectrum of sleep disordered breathing issues. Most sleep studies don't look for Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome.
Referral to ENT
Sometimes a specialist needs to be brought into help problem solve nasal breathing. This doesn't always mean surgery.
Screening for risk
At your comprehensive exam, you are screened for risk of snoring or other sleep disordered breathing habits.