Snoring affects as high as 20% of the population and may impact to breathing during sleep. Surgical and non surgical treatment options for snoring have soared in the past years especially with the advent of minimally invasive office procedures such as laser palatoplasty, radio frequency (RF) volumetric reduction, the Pillar procedure and increase use oral appliances.
Laser assisted uvulo-palatoplasty (LAUP) can be performed under local anesthesia in the office. Patient satisfaction is greatest with an effective, rapid in-office procedure with minimal post surgical down time at a reasonable cost. Energy deliverance by an ablative mode using lasers or RF (radio frequency) attempts to reduce excessive palatal volume with further scar formation, results in intrapalatal stiffening.
After injection of local anesthetic on the soft palater, a 980nm NIR (near infrared) laser with 300 micron fiber coupled to a surgical handpiece and curved needle tip was used. Laser settings were 7-8W in continuous mode, the snoring symptom can be relieved.
