Snoring consultant Post Reply

[Janet14]

Hi, can anyone recommend anyone who can help with snoring? I've tried ear plugs, nose strips, rolling my husband over (!), everything and with no spare room am all out of options and slightly at my wits end!!

[Goldhawk]

Has he been to the GP?

[Janet14]

Yes but more due to blocked sinuses and was referred to a nose Dr and operated on but even though they said the operation was successful it hasn't helped. However they were always looking at the sinuses as opposed to the snoring which was a problem before the sinuses became blocked but now due to them worse than ever!

[Joeybar]

I really feel for you - im afraid my post is not going to be very positive.
I'm in the same position. We've been down the road of seeing a consultant (can't remember his name - it was at the lister hospital.)
Apparently my husband has the 'wrong type of snoring' for the operation to work. After having tried lots of different gadgets including having a mouth shield made , none of them workrd. I've resorted to silicone ear plugs and trying to get to sleep before him. Unfortunately he can fall asleep within about 20 seconds, then another 20 seconds the snoring starts. I'm always looking out for anything new that comes on the market as we'll give anything a go.

[Janet14]

Well if I find anything that works I'll let you know! Apparently white noise is good and I actually just switched back to foam earplugs as the silicon ones kept falling out and have found as long as the foam ones are the right shape they do work better....having said that was woken up and then kept awake last night

[Stripyshirt]

I know exactly how awful this is as my husband is a snorer too. He has had two operations to try to sort it out and whilst the second one was relatively successful he then went and ruined everything by breaking his nose playing rugby so we were back to square one and I couldn't make him go through the op again. The best thing I ever did was get a pair of custom fitted earplugs made - https://www.proguarduk.co.uk/
You go to this place in Putney and they pour wax moulds into your ears and then a few weeks later the silicone ear plugs come back and they absolutely block everything out (including screaming kids haha) as they are the exact shape of your ear. Not cheap for a pair of earplugs but frankly you can't put a price on a good night's sleep. Highly recommend for partners of all snorers. HTH.

[Janet14]

Oh amazing, am so glad I posted, thank you so much ch!!

[FLH03]

My husband snores every single night, regardless of his sleeping position, how tired he is, the amount of beer on board or whether he has a cold or not. It causes me real problems, trying to get to sleep as well as waking me up, and it's damaging our relationship as I often wake up resenting him, it can be even hating him some mornings.

I have not found anything that is a miracle cure, sorry. I don't like ear plugs as I want to be able to hear the children. Friends' husbands have had throat lasering surgery that seems to work only in the very short term (mainly because the men are in so much agony that they can't sleep anyway!!).

One small positive point - I bought a Boots snoring throat spray for my husband and that gave a bit of relief - I think mainly because by using this, he was acknowledging it was his problem, taking some ownership to do something about it, and was aware of this every bed time. I picked up a card for a snoring consultant at our GP practice, despite me asking repeatedly husband has not gone.

Some of this is genetic - his father has sleep apnoea, and has to have a mask at night, some of it is being a bit tubby, some of it is definitely ageing, as many friends now suffering the same too. However it is not the same volume or type of snoring all night so it can't be foregone conclusion that this is just the way it has to be (I hope). I look forward to hearing any other advice and guidance, and you have my understanding and sympathy.

[Prodenta]

Hi there,

Coming from a more clinical perspective here, I am a dentist who has trained in dental sleep medicine.
Snoring commonly occurs as there is a deficiency in the airway space at the back of the mouth which inhibits the flow of breathing. So while the snoring is stopping your nights sleep, your partner is also stopped from getting good quality sleep which can affect his general health and wellbeing.

A dental device , called a mandibular advancedment splint can be made which opens the back of the airway and stops or reduces the snoring noise.

Have a look here for a short explanation:
http://www.prodenta.co.uk/snoring-devices/

It might be worth him coming in for a consultation to see if it can work for him (and you)…..

[lydia249]

I have a serious snorer too - think his is genetic as his mum snores the house down and his aunt has to use the sleep apnoea device. The only thing that works for me is silicone ear plugs at the moment but I do have to make sure I fall asleep first.

There's a new device that has been developed which the snorer wears on their nose and works by cancelling out the snore noise (https://www.silent-partner.co/). Don't think its available yet and don't know if it works but anything is worth a try!

[Janet14]

Thanks everyone for all the tips, all very useful and iwill try them all I'm sure! I've also found that if you pull your ear at the top when putting in the foam ear plugs it opens up your ear canal properly so that they stay in place and really do block a lot out so that's helping a lot!!
Still need to sort out the snoring though to help his sleep as am sure he must be disturbing himself!

[legs11]

I'd always found earplugs useless until I realised
- there are lots of different ones to try
- I hadn't been putting them in properly

I got a sample pack from here
http://www.snorestore.co.uk/acatalog/ea ... html#SID=4

and worked out which ones fitted me the best. They also mentioned the pulling the ear back thing and it's made a huge difference. Once you'd identified which brand works buy them on Amazon as they are much cheaper than snore store.

I was also reluctant to block out noise because of hearing the children but actually it's great as it means my husband has to deal with them if they wake up!

[RG1216]

Snoring is such bad news for a marriage - we were at our wits end and generally sleeping in separate beds. Felt like we'd tried everything but nothing worked. In the end the best solution we found was a snoring device fitted by an orthodontist called Dr Simon Ash - just google his name and something should come up. He invented something called the Somnowell device which if custom made and keeps the airways open. Not exactly sexy but enables us to sleep in the same bed! Husband still can't sleep on his back, but on his side there is virtually no snoring!