CPAP User Sleeping
We recently traveled by air and were herded through airport security with some basic items piled into those cafeteria-like bus boy carts for passage through inspection, including:
- Our shoes
- Pants that drooped to our knees due to no belt
- Our delicate, pricey laptop
We also noticed that quite a few men, who appeared over 50, had taken apart their CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) machines for inspection.
A CPAP is a small pump-like machine and face mask, used while sleeping. A CPAP forces air down the nose through a strap-on mask and into the lungs of a snoring person. Usually, a diagnosis of sleep apnea goes hand-in-hand.
Sleep apnea causes breathing to stop altogether and the person to wake momentarily.
Result? The CPAP puts plenty of oxygen into lungs and vital organs, allowing more rest. Bonus result: wives love the quiet that comes with no more snoring….once they get used to the whispering of the CPAP.
Thus, many who use CPAP machines have a blocked nose….. but don’t know it. The question is whether or not their blocked nose can be surgically repaired.
Many conditions may also cause snoring and sleep apnea, including:
- A thick or short neck
- An upper palate and or uvula (that worm-like extension that hangs down into the throat, above the back of the tongue) that needs reduction
- An unrepaired broken nose
- Deviated nasal septum, possibly from injury
- Enlarged nasal turbinates, sometimes the result of nasal allergies
After having seen over 4,000 patients for nasal surgery, we’ve noticed that many structures inside the nose that can cause:
- Snoring
- Blocked sinuses with a head cold or allergy attack
- Bonafide sinus infection, a serious condition, requiring antibiotics and sometimes surgical intervention
One patient complained of loud snoring; when we looked into his nose and throat, we saw a huge uvula, hanging way down into the lower throat, swinging back and forth with each breath.
Result? Removing the uvula quelled the snoring. (Don’t worry, the uvula has no function; you can do nicely without it.)
Several key structures inside the nose need to be evaluated.
- The septum, the thin, vertical wall separating the two nasal passages
- The turbinates, shelf-like structures that warm, humidify and filter the incoming air.
If the septum has been broken and is crooked, it blocks incoming air.
The turbinates and nasal lining can swell due to cold viruses or allergies and contribute to reduced air flow through the nose.
A relatively short nasal procedure – done with or without cosmetic rhinoplasty – can:
- Correct breathing
- Stop the sleep apnea and
- Remove the need for a CPAP
Major hint: if your nose looks bent or crooked on the outside, it is also probably crooked on the inside as well. And not likely to allow normal breathing.
Without having to lug around that CPAP machine, just imagine how nice it would be to have one hand free to hold up your drooping trousers while going through airport security!