There are many different sleep apnea treatments to choose from if you find yourself suffering with the sleeping disorder. However, depending on your age, some may be more effective and easier than others. For example, when children are suffering from sleep apnea, quite frequently the treatment of choice is a tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy surgery. These surgeries don’t just treat the sleep apnea, they cure it. Before surgery is decided upon, many times the doctor will try prescribing a course of anti-inflammatory steroids (like prednisone or a different kind of glucocorticoid drug). These drugs will provide short term solutions to the short term problem of tonsillar and adenoidal enlargement due to acute infectious mononucleosis.
While many of the words describing sleep apnea treatments are long and hard to pronounce, some are easier to say and understand. Some doctors, for instance, believe that sleep apnea is a neurological condition, caused by the nerves that control the soft palate and tongue failing to stimulate those muscles. These doctors are currently working on neurostimulation trials, checking to see if the use of pacemakers or other similar devices can put a quick and easy end to the sleep apnea. So far, the early trials look promising.
Surgery is also one of the more common sleep apnea treatments available for patients today. That said, in some cases the use of sedatives and analgesics in patients can cause life threatening breathing irregularities, even when used in low doses. As a result, post op use of these drugs should be minimized, if not avoided altogether. Also, sometimes the swelling that occurs after the surgery is so bad that it causes more interference with normal breathing. Again, in extreme cases death can be the end result. The best way to avoid these complications is to be intensively monitored while you sleep.