Snoring can be a real pain.
It can make it tricky for you to get a good night's rest and your partner to.
It can also be very serious even fatal.
Some people are supposed to be using a CPAP machine to improve their sleep apnea bu they're
just not comfortable wearing that mask to bed.
So here to talk about all your options for treating snoring and sleep apnea is Dr. Madan
Kandula with Advanced Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialists or ADVENT.
Good to see you, doctor.
Good to be here.
Yeah.
I think this is probably something you have a lot of people come to you and talk about
is their snoring or their partner's snoring and the fact that they need to use a CPAP
machine.
Let's talk first about the amount of people who have this issue.
Are there a lot of people who have sleep apnea.
Yeah absolutely.
Tons.
I mean it's about forty percent of the population which is a lot who snore chronically.
Almost everybody can be a snorer if you have a cold or something like that.
Or if you have a couple of extra drinks or that kind of thing.
But about forty percent of the population night after night chronic sort of thing and
about ten percent of the population has sleep apnea.
So not only are they making lots of noise when they sleep they are stopping breathing
when they sleep at night.
The number of people that actually get treated is a teeny teeny fraction of that cause a
lot of folks are kind of scared about what the options might be.
They don't really understand that there are a lot of different options.
It's not one size fits all and that's not okay.
Well and I think some people think you talked about he percentage of people who actually
have sleep apnea which is more serious form of sleep disorder/ And then you think about
people who are using the mask I think people think oh if I have sleep apnea or my partner
has sleep apnea then the way it's treated is always the CPAP machines CPAP mask.
On the good side of the equation people have actually heard about CPAP at this point back
when I was going through training it was really not an understood condition.
On the bad side of the equation everybody sort of got in the cart before the horse and
CPAP is a good treatment option but the problem is it's often pushed upon folks when it might
be overkill for what they have or if they have other issues so if there nose is blocked
up for instance they're not going to be able to tolerate that CPAP machine you get a lot
of folks who sort of are getting shoved this mask at them and a lot of folks yo know as
you would imagine aren't real happy with that and then a whole other crew of folks aren't
real happy with the thought that oh I'm going to go and I'm going to get treated and that's
it and again we can do better than that.
Yeah, so there's lots of reasons and lots of other options too.
How about just in diagnosing it in the first place?
What's something you guys do different at ADVENT when you're figuring out what the actual
problem is?
Two things.
One, well, there's three things.
One is listen.
Listen to what is going on.
It sounds simple, but think about how often that happens.
Two is look.
Same thing sounds simple.
We could look.
If someone has sleep apnea the issues are always in the back of the throat so either
your palate is too long or tongue is too big typically.
Really?
And most folks who have snoring and sleep apnea issues also have nasal issues which
they may or may not know about so they come in for snoring but we'll look and sort of
think about the nose obviously that's the start of your airway so you can't breathe
through your nose and your mouth is dropping open and that's a problem right there and
so we're going to sort of stop there and say is that an issue what can we do about that
and if we feel like somebody might have some sleep apnea we do a home sleep study.
It's simple.
It's like a head strap that you wear when you go to bed at night, one night, you bring
the device back we download the information it tells us about your snoring if you're doing
that tells us if you're stopping breathing and how often you're doing that and it tells
us about your oxygen levels and how low those are going so all those things factor in so
it's what's going on what do we see what do we see on the data that we're getting then
we start thinking about options.
We don't think about options before we get an understanding about what's going on.
Until you evaluate I wonder about people who might be watching and maybe they're using
the CPAP machine or it's been recommended that they use it.
Is it possible that someone was prescribed that and it just won't work for whatever their
issues are and it's causing sleep apnea?
Yep absolutely.
So and CPAP is good so I don't want to give it a bad rep but you even you use it but absolutely
it's a good thing but it's not a good thing.
Let me go this way the best way for CPAP to work is on a nose that is open.
As I said before most folks that have sleep apnea issues don't have a nose that's open
and so the end around is trying to put a full face mask on somebody which is very claustrophobic
you can't breathe through your nose and suddenly you've taken over your mouth airway too.
It's not a fun sort of things so for a lot of folks most folks who struggle with CPAP
acceptance so most folks prescribed CPAP don't tolerate it.
That's sad.
One third of patients who actually are prescribed CPAP tolerate it.
So two thirds of folks are trying to do the right thing can't do the right thing most
of those folks are in that you know sort of CPAP failure category they have nasal issues
that haven't been addressed so if we address those nasal issues upfront or if somebody's
tried CPAP already let's try to get the nose fixed or corrected and then we can go to a
smaller mask that's a lot it's a whole different ball game with the nasal mask versus a full
face mask and then there are other options out there other than the machine.
There's an oral appliance which is like a retainer that you can wear when you sleep
at night.
That's pretty mellow.
Same thing you could have a nose that works and then there are procedures that can be
effective too.
Most of our procedures we try to look towards in office procedures so there's a whole sort
of host of procedures we can do there and if it's appropriate or necessary we'll think
about true surgical procedures so it's really it is a nice thing that there is a lot of
different options so it's really trying to figure out how do we make that playing board
work for each individual.
You have these free public programs that are going on next week when these are done we'll
give all the information for them.
Can people meet privately with a physician or a doctor after these programs as well?
Yep absolutely.
I mean the goal is to getting information and you knwo asking good questions.
Alright.
So Tuesday next Tuesday May 23 is the first one that's in Mequon.
It's at 6 o'clock right on North Port Washington Road.
Again these are free public programs you'll talk about snoring, sleep apnea treatments.
And then on Thursday the 25th at 6 o'clock in Tosa.
That location is right on North Mayfair Road.
You can call to register at 414- 771-6780 or register online at advent.md/event-form
and visit there as well to make an appointment with Advanced, Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists
at ADVENT.
What I like about it is you present every option.
You know it's not just one option for everybody who's snoring which I think is fantastic.
Great to see you.
Great to be here.
Thank you thank you.