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Tongue Too Big for Your Mouth!
Has anyone been told by an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon that the patient's tongue was too big for their month and that condition was creating sleep apnea? I refused potential tongue surgery several years ago when a surgeon suggested such a surgery. This was soon after he performed surgery to remove my uvula and guaranteed that this was the cause of my sleep problems. I have been on a CPAP machine and full mask ever since I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. It has worked well for me except that I sweat quite a bit from the full mask.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steven Y. Park, MD on
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It's not that your tongue is too big—your jaw is too small. Furthermore, your stomach juices get suctioned into your throat during apneas causes mild swelling of your tongue, which makes the problem even worse. For most people palate surgery alone doesn't cure sleep apnea. You have to address the entire pathway, from the tip of the nose to your tongue base. There are procedures to shrink, pull, stabilize or debulk the tongue. There are also procedures that make your jaws wider or more spacious. If you're doing well on CPAP, it's hard to justify surgery (unless you have some very good reasons).
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Permalink Reply by Larry Bruck on
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Thank you Dr Park for your response. Your assessment to "your jaw is too small" I'm sure is accurate. The way it was said to me by an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon spoke of the size of my tongue rather than the smallness of my jaw. Either way, after two unsuccessful surgeries - nose and throat - I don't intend to pursue any other procedures. There will be no future shrinking, pulling, stabilizing or debulking of my tongue. But again, I thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my posting.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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many a sleep physician has peered into my airway and thought it to be a good candidate for surgery, but i'm doing well on CPAP, so am not eager to do anything more aggressive at this point.
Larry Bruck said:Thank you Dr Park for your response. Your assessment to "your jaw is too small" I'm sure is accurate. The way it was said to me by an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon spoke of the size of my tongue rather than the smallness of my jaw. Either way, after two unsuccessful surgeries - nose and throat - I don't intend to pursue any other procedures. There will be no future shrinking, pulling, stabilizing or debulking of my tongue. But again, I thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my posting.
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Have been having a feeling lately my tongue seems to fill the back of my mouth where I can't see anything. Find my self looking at everyone's tongue to see if theirs is as big as mine. I drive myself crazy thinking my tongue is abnormal and going to explode. No room to comfortable sit in my mouth. My everything seems to be so relaxed and tongue seems huge and floppy. I have snored my entire life why issues with my tongue and uvula now?
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Permalink Reply by sleepycarol on
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You are probably just more aware of your tongue since your diagnosis and intead of "issues happening now". If you have snored your whole life you probably have had apnea for a while as well.
It seems once we are diagnosised with something (at least for me) I become very aware of things associated with it. Maybe you are in this catergory as well. After a time, I no longer focus on it and it has ceased being a "problem."
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Permalink Reply by 99 on
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i think that the surgeon has a big tongue in guaranteeing what he could not really guarantee
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Thank you. Once hearing someone else tell me what I should already know, I feel better.
sleepycarol said:You are probably just more aware of your tongue since your diagnosis and intead of "issues happening now". If you have snored your whole life you probably have had apnea for a while as well.
It seems once we are diagnosised with something (at least for me) I become very aware of things associated with it. Maybe you are in this catergory as well. After a time, I no longer focus on it and it has ceased being a "problem."
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Permalink Reply by Richard S on
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I haven't, but I'm really wondering if this applies to me (tongue and jaw size mismatch), it always feels like the tongue is getting in the way of things.
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See reply by Dr Park - it seems that your jaw may be too small rather than your tongue being too big. Either way - an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor suggested that I have surgery to reduce the size of my tongue - surgery that I refused to do.
Richard S said:I haven't, but I'm really wondering if this applies to me (tongue and jaw size mismatch), it always feels like the tongue is getting in the way of things.
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