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Snoring & Sleep Apnea Center

Snoring And Sleep Apnea Treatment Options in Austin, TX

At Sinus & Snoring Specialists, our ENT specialists provide comprehensive solutions for snoring, sleep apnea, and other forms of sleep disordered breathing. Whether you’ve been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, suspect you have a sleep disorder, or are simply looking for relief from chronic snoring, our team develops a personalized treatment plan based on your unique anatomy, symptoms, lifestyle, and treatment goals. Our approach is never one-size-fits-all—we carefully tailor each treatment plan to your unique anatomy and preferences.

We offer the full spectrum of sleep apnea treatment options, including nonsurgical therapies, medical management, oral appliances, minimally invasive office procedures, and advanced surgical options. With over 40 years of combined expertise and a state-of-the-art facility, our ENT specialists are committed to helping patients improve their breathing, restore more restful sleep, and reduce the health risks associated with untreated sleep apnea for real, lasting relief.

Unlike traditional sleep centers, you don’t need to spend the night in a lab for a sleep study. We offer convenient home sleep testing (HST) devices, so you can evaluate your sleep and breathing habits comfortably in your own bed. Once diagnosis is confirmed, our team creates a customized treatment plan that addresses the underlying causes of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, including problems affecting the nasal airway, soft palate, tongue, throat, and tonsils. And unlike many clinics, you won’t be forced into CPAP therapy—we provide all the latest in-office procedures designed to correct the underlying anatomical causes of snoring and sleep apnea, so you can enjoy healthier sleep and a better quality of life.

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Snoring Vs. Sleep Apnea

During your consultation, our ENT specialist will talk about the difference between snoring and sleep apnea, how these conditions are diagnosed through a sleep study, and the personalized treatment options available at Sinus & Snoring Specialists. While many people think snoring and sleep apnea are different disorders, they are actually the same condition that falls along a spectrum of what is called sleep disordered breathing. As the degree of airway resistance and obstruction increases, symptoms become more severe and the health risks grow. Understanding these different types of sleep disorders can help you recognize when it’s time to seek evaluation and treatment.

Snoring is the mildest and most common form of sleep disordered breathing. As you sleep, the muscles of the soft palate, tongue, and throat relax, narrowing the upper airway. This partial blockage causes vibrating soft tissue, producing the familiar snoring sounds. This condition is much more common and very frequently related to narrowing of the nasal airway. Any narrowing of the nasal airway from things like allergies, a deviated septum, nasal polyps, chronic sinusitis, nasal valve collapse, and vasomotor rhinitis all serve to create this airway collapse, vibration, and noise production.  Although snoring may not always affect the person who snores, it does frequently affect their sleep quality. Loud snoring can also disrupt a bed partner’s sleep and may be an early warning sign of obstructive sleep apnea. It’s important to understand that snoring can still cause witnessed sleep apnea episodes by the bed partner and can also drop the oxygen concentration in your blood.

Upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) is a more significant form of sleep disordered breathing. Exactly like snoring, the airway collapse and vibration occurs frequently with some form of restriction of the nasal airway. The patient and bed partner will see and hear the snoring and witness episodes of sleep apnea as well. Patients often experience daytime fatigue, excessive daytime sleepiness, difficulty concentrating, and may feel tired despite getting a full night of sleep. You can think of this as the same thing as obstructive sleep apnea where the precise amount of obstruction and lowered oxygen do not meet the strict medical definition of OSA, but to the patient and the bed partner, it looks and feels the same. It will not have the same degree of long term health consequences as OSA, but it is very symptomatic.

Sleep apnea is the most serious condition on the spectrum. The most common form is obstructive sleep apnea, which occurs when the airway repeatedly partially or near completely during sleep, causing breathing to become shallow or stop breathing altogether. These repeated episodes or pauses can lower blood oxygen levels, interrupt the depth and quality of sleep and place strain on the cardiovascular system as well as the hormone system. Severe long term consequences beyond fatigue and a bothered bed partner are present. Diseases such as hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, heart attack, stroke, obesity, diabetes, and many more are possible. A sleep study is used to diagnose sleep apnea and determine its severity, whether it is mild, moderate, or severe sleep apnea. Left untreated, sleep apnea is linked to a wide range of health problems, including:

  • Hypertension
  • Weight gain
  • Diabetes
  • Atrial fibrillation
  • Heart attack
  • Stroke
  • Dementia

In addition to long-term health risks, sleep apnea can cause excessive daytime sleepiness, reduced focus, productivity, and overall quality of life.

Although obstructive sleep apnea is the most common form, central sleep apnea is another type of sleep apnea. Rather than resulting from a blocked airway, central sleep apnea occurs when the brain fails to send the proper signals to the breathing muscles. An evaluation by our experienced sleep medicine healthcare professionals can determine which type of sleep apnea you have and recommend the most appropriate treatment.

Why Do I Snore?

Snoring occurs when air has difficulty moving freely through your upper airway during sleep. As you fall asleep, the muscles of your throat relax, your muscle tone decreases, and the soft palate, tongue, and other soft tissue can partially block the airway. As air is forced through this narrow space, the surrounding tissues vibrate, creating the snoring sounds you or your bed partner hear. 

Several factors can contribute to snoring, including a deviated septum, nasal congestion, enlarged turbinates, chronic sinusitis, nasal polyps, nasal valve collapse, vasomotor rhinitis, a large tongue, large tonsils, excess soft tissue in the throat, weight gain, sleeping on your back, and alcohol use before bedtime. While occasional snoring may be harmless, chronic or loud snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder that causes repeated interruptions in breathing throughout the night.

At Sinus & Snoring Specialists, we don’t just treat the symptoms of snoring, we identify the underlying cause of your snoring. So, whether your condition is related to your nose, nasal passages, soft palate, tongue, or another area of the upper airway, our specialists can recommend personalized treatment options to improve your breathing, keep your airway open, and help you achieve more restful sleep. 

Want to learn more? Watch our video explaining what causes snoring, how it differs from sleep apnea, and the treatment options available to help you sleep and breathe better.

Why Is Sleep So Important?

Quality sleep is critical to both our physical daily functions, our overall health, and our mental health. During sleep, your body repairs tissues, restores energy, supports healthy brain function, and regulates hormones that affect metabolism, mood, memory, and immune system. It causes mental and physical repair that allows you to wake up rested and ready for the day. A consistent full night of restorative sleep helps you wake up refreshed, stay alert throughout the day, and maintain your overall health and well-being. 

Although snoring is often thought of as a nuisance, it is actually directly related to many serious health conditions. In obstructive sleep apnea, the muscles of the throat relax and partially or completely block the upper airway, causing breathing to repeatedly slow or stop breathing during the night. These repeated episodes interrupt normal breathing patterns, lower blood oxygen levels, and prevent the deep, restorative sleep your body needs. 

A bed partner is often the first to notice the symptoms of sleep apnea. They may hear loud snoring, followed by a deep pause in breathing, a loud gasp, choking, or snorting as the airway reopens. Although the person with sleep apnea may not remember these events, they often wake feeling unrested, feel tired throughout the day, experience daytime sleepiness, or develop morning headaches despite spending enough time in bed. Because untreated sleep apnea has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, stroke, diabetes, and other serious health conditions, early diagnosis and treatment are essential for helping prevent long-term complications.

Causes Of Disruptive Sleep

Healthy sleep hygiene plays an important role in reducing snoring, improving sleep, and managing obstructive sleep apnea. While some causes of sleep disordered breathing require medical treatment, certain lifestyle habits can significantly improve your symptoms and enhance the quality of your sleep.

Your sleep position can have a major impact on snoring and sleep apnea. For many patients, sleeping on your back allows the tongue, soft palate, and other soft tissue in the throat to fall backward, narrowing the upper airway and making it more difficult to keep the airway open during sleep. This can increase snoring, contribute to airway obstruction, and worsen obstructive sleep apnea. Our team can recommend positional therapy, specialized pillows, mattresses, and other strategies to help encourage side or prone sleeping.

Alcohol and sedative medications relax the muscles of the throat, causing muscle tone to decrease and increasing the likelihood of snoring and sleep apnea. Because these substances can make the airway more likely to collapse during sleep, we often recommend patients avoid alcohol before bedtime, particularly if they have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.

Weight gain is one of the most common risk factors for snoring and apnea. Extra tissue around the neck and throat can narrow the upper airway, increasing the chance of airway obstruction while you sleep. Even modest weight loss can improve breathing, reduce snoring, and lessen the severity of mild sleep apnea in many patients. A diet and exercise program can be very helpful, and we also work cooperatively with endocrinologists to analyze your metabolism to assist in weight loss.

Chronic nasal congestion, allergies, and inflammation within the nasal passages can make it harder to breathe comfortably through your nose at night, contributing to snoring and poor sleep quality. Allergy Control from our Allergy Center can reduce allergy-related congestion, improve airflow, support healthier nighttime breathing, and reduce snoring and apnea as well.

Snoring, Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) & Sleep Apnea Treatment Options

At Sinus & Snoring Specialists, we believe there is no one-size-fits-all solution for snoring, Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS), or sleep apnea. Because every patient’s anatomy, symptoms, and goals are unique, we offer many different solutions to treat snoring and sleep apnea. Our state-of-the-art facility combined with many years of expertise and experience, allows our ENT specialists to offer the full spectrum of sleep apnea treatment options, including nonsurgical treatments, minimally invasive procedures, and surgical options to provide a real solution to your snoring or sleep apnea issue. 

Convenient Home Sleep Testing

You don’t have to spend the night in a sleep laboratory to receive an accurate diagnosis. We offer sophisticated home sleep apnea testing, allowing you to complete a sleep study in the comfort of your own home while measuring important information such as your breathing patterns, blood oxygen levels, and other indicators of obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. These results help our sleep medicine specialists determine the type of severity of your condition so we can recommend the most effective treatment. And you will not be forced into a CPAP, as we offer all of the modern techniques, all available in our office procedure suite, to correct the anatomical issues causing your snoring or sleep apnea.

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Non-Surgical Sleep Apnea Treatment Options

CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) and BiPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure)

These forms of therapy apply gentle air pressure through a mask at night while you sleep, helping to keep the upper airway and airway open to prevent episodes in which you stop breathing. It can be very successful, but it is poorly tolerated by many. Frequently, people with chronic nasal congestion, a deviated septum, chronic sinus problems, or allergies will not be able to tolerate it because the pressure required to pump air through a closed nose is too high. To improve comfort and treatment success, our specialists can address these underlying anatomical issues with treatments such as balloon sinuplasty, combined with the correction of any deviation of the septum and swollen turbinates, can make the CPAP tolerable and more effective.

OA (Oral Appliance) Therapy

For many of our patients, we work closely with specialized sleep dentists and orthodontists so they can make custom-fitted oral appliances that gently reposition the jaw and tongue during sleep. These devices are especially beneficial for our patients who have large tongues or other anatomical causes of airway obstruction. By helping keep the airway open, oral appliances can reduce snoring, improve nighttime breathing, and effectively treat many cases of obstructive sleep apnea. They are comfortable, portable, and easy to use, making them an excellent option for patients who cannot tolerate CPAP or who are looking for a convenient, non-surgical solution for sleep apnea. As in CPAP use, these dental appliances are generally well tolerated and effective when there are open and healthy nasal airway and sinuses. Therefore, we may also help optimize the patient’s nasal and sinus health and structure to help make these devices effective and well tolerated.

Minimally Invasive Sleep Apnea Treatment Options

At Sinus & Snoring Specialists, we offer a variety of minimally invasive procedures to treat snoring, obstructive sleep apnea, and other forms of sleep disordered breathing by correcting the anatomical causes of airway obstruction. Depending on your symptoms and anatomy, your personalized treatment plan may include one or more of the following procedures:

These treatments improve airflow through the nasal passages and upper airway, helping patients breathe more easily during the day by correcting obstructions in the nasal airway and throat, improving airflow, and reducing snoring.

How Nasal Obstruction Contributes to Snoring and Sleep Apnea

When air is forced through a narrow passage, it becomes faster and more turbulent—similar to how water sprays harder and faster when you place your thumb over the end of a garden hose. This principle, known as the Bernoulli effect, explains how nasal blockage can lead to snoring and sleep apnea:

As turbulent airflow travels through the upper airway, it can:

  • Cause the soft palate and uvula to vibrate, producing snoring sounds
  • Create negative pressure that pulls the tongue backward, increasing airway obstruction, and blocking the airway
  • Forced mouth breathing, allowing the jaw to fall backward, further contributes to airway collapse, and making it more difficult to keep the airway open
  • Increase the likelihood of interrupted breathing and episodes in which patients stop breathing during sleep

Restoring Healthy Airflow

Balloon sinuplasty, septoplasty, turbinate reduction, and nasal polyp removal not only improve daytime breathing but also significantly decrease turbulent airflow through the nose by correcting structural problems such as a deviated septum, enlarged turbinates, chronic sinus disease, and nasal polyps. By restoring normal airflow through the nasal passages, these treatments reduce turbinate airflow, improve nighttime breathing, and help decrease both snoring and apnea.

Many of these minimally invasive procedures can be safely combined into a single office visit. Most treatments typically take about 15 minutes under IV sedation, require minimal recovery time, and allow most patients to return to work and normal daily activities as early as the following day. By addressing the underlying anatomical causes of snoring and sleep apnea, these procedures can provide long-lasting relief and improve the quality of your sleep and overall health.

Surgical Sleep Apnea Treatments

While many patients can find relief with non-surgical therapies or minimally invasive procedures, some cases of obstructive sleep apnea require surgery to correct the underlying airway obstruction. As Sinus & Snoring Specialists, we carefully evaluate your anatomy, sleep study results, and treatment goals before recommending surgery.

For patients with large tonsils, a tonsillectomy may be an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea and chronic snoring. Enlarged tonsils can significantly narrow the upper airway, making it more likely that you will stop breathing during sleep. A tonsillectomy is done as a last option as there is significant downtime. It is a simple outpatient procedure.

Some patients develop sleep apnea because of the structure of their facial bones rather than the soft tissues of their throat. In these cases, we work closely with experienced oral and maxillofacial surgeons in cases where the development of the facial skeleton is contributing to sleep apnea. By repositioning the upper and lower jaw, this procedure enlarges the upper airway, reduces airway obstruction, improves nighttime breathing, and can significantly improve obstructive sleep apnea.

Inspire implant is a surgical procedure for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Simply put, it is an innovative implant device designed to treat obstructive sleep apnea for patients who cannot tolerate CPAP therapy. During this same-day outpatient procedure, a small device is implanted beneath your skin under your jaw and in the chest. While you sleep, the device gently stimulates the tongue muscles to help keep the airway open, reducing episodes in which you stop breathing and improving airflow throughout the night. For appropriately selected patients, Inspire offers an effective alternative to traditional CPAP therapy.

Can Sleep Apnea Cause Anxiety?

Yes. Untreated sleep apnea has been associated with an increased risk of anxiety, depression, mood changes, and other mental health concerns. Because sleep apnea repeatedly interrupts sleep and reduces blood oxygen levels, many patients experience daytime fatigue, excessive daytime sleepiness, difficulty concentrating, and emotional changes. Effective treatment can improve both sleep quality and overall well-being.

What Kind Of Doctor Treats Sleep Apnea?

Physicians who are board-certified by the AASM (American Academy of Sleep Medicine) are the experts in sleep apnea and have advanced training in diagnosing and treating sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. Because our office has a board-certified doctor with expertise in sleep medicine as well as board certified ENT specialists, we have a unique understanding of the anatomy of the upper airway and can offer comprehensive treatment options beyond CPAP, including minimally invasive procedures and surgery when appropriate.

How Is Neck Circumference Related To Sleep Apnea?

People with a neck circumference of 17 inches or greater are at a significantly higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Excessive tissue around the neck can increase the likelihood of airway obstruction during sleep. Other important risk factors that increase the likelihood of OSA include:

  • Anatomical narrowing of the nasal airway
  • A large tongue
  • Enlarged tonsils
  • Excess weight or obesity
  • Deviated septum or narrowing of the nasal passages
  • Chronic sinusitis
  • Nasal polyps
  • A family history of sleep apnea

These features can all contribute to airway blockage during sleep, making OSA more likely and more severe.

What Is The Best Pillow For Sleep Apnea?

Your sleep position can play an important role in managing snoring and mild sleep apnea. Pillows that elevate the head higher than the stomach and assist the patient in sleeping on their side, such as the MedCline® Sleep System, may help reduce airway obstruction, improve nighttime breathing, and decrease snoring for some patients. While specialized pillows are not a cure for sleep apnea, they can be a helpful part of a comprehensive treatment plan for OSA.

Are Sleep Apnea Tests Covered By Insurance?

Typically, home sleep apnea testing and a sleep study performed at home are covered by insurance, although coverage varies by plan. Traditional in-laboratory sleep studies are frequently not covered by insurances and may have different coverage requirements. Our team can help verify your benefits and determine which sleep study is most appropriate for your needs.

Are There Negative Side Effects From Using A CPAP?

CPAP therapy is a highly effective option for many patients with obstructive sleep apnea, but some people experience side effects that make it difficult to use consistently. Common concerns include facial creases, skin irritation, nasal congestion, nasal dryness or bleeding, sinus infections, and worsening allergies also occur. If CPAP isn’t working for you, our specialists offer a wide range of treatment options, including oral appliances, minimally invasive procedures, and surgical solutions to address the underlying cause of your sleep apnea.

Schedule A Consultation For Snoring Or Sleep Apnea Treatment In Austin

If chronic snoring, obstructive sleep apnea, or another sleep disorder is affecting your health, you don’t have to continue living with restless nights and exhausting days. At Sinus & Snoring Specialists, we provide comprehensive evaluations, convenient home sleep apnea testing, and personalized treatment options to help you with problems related to snoring and sleep apnea.

Call our Austin office today at 512.601.0303 to schedule a consultation today and take the first step toward healthier sleep and lasting relief from snoring and sleep apnea.

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