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An Example: From Snoring to Insurance

Let’s look at something simple and non-medical: car insurance.  Let’s take 20 people who are considered bad drivers by their insurance companies.  As a result of that dubious distinction, all of these drivers are going to face a premium increase of $500 when they’re insurance is renewed.

Now, seen at a distance, it might appear as though all of these drivers are in the same boat (or same car, as it were).  And given that assumption, a method to deal with this problem might be to simply give each of these people an extra $500 in cash.  Really, as strange as that sounds, this is a way to solve this problem for each of these 20 drivers: they need to find $500 more to pay their insurance premium, and hence, that is what this so-called solution is going to do.  Yet is this wise?  No!

Some of those drivers – probably more than a few of them – are not going to actually correct why they might be classified as a “bad driver” by their insurance company.  They simply won’t know why they’re bad drivers, and hence, some of them will likely remain a “bad driver”, and face higher insurance premiums next year – but this time after a few more accidents or tickets.

As you can easily see, the real cause of the so-called “bad driving” isn’t solved when each person is given a nice gift of $500 with which to pay his or her increased insurance premium.  And since the problem isn’t really solved, the bad driving can crop up again, and cause financial problems and even worse, it can endanger health and safety.

So when people readily turn to trachea tissue-cutting surgery to cure their snoring, they may quite easily be overlooking the real root cause of the snoring; something that may be related to diet, sleep position, jaw or tongue dysfunction, lifestyle, genetics, or be an indication of an even more serious health problem; an indication that could be dangerously suppressed (temporarily, at least), after a seemingly successful surgery.

Going to surgery as an easy, off-the cuff solution for snoring, is like giving these bad drivers $500 in cash.  It may seem to solve their problem, but for many, it will just be a temporary fix; masking even deeper problems that can lead to severe consequences down the road, including Sleep Apnea.

Other Reasons to Just Say NO to Snoring Surgery

Again, we return to the unfortunately familiar theme that surgery has become an easy first option for many physicians who, for a variety of reasons (including, sometimes, financial ones) find themselves recommending surgery as an almost off the cuff solution to a serious snoring problem.

Sometimes, what is lost in this snoring surgical-obsession are some very basic and established risks.  For those who are not immediately familiar with such risks, they include: 

· post-operative medical conditions, including aesthetic and cosmetic concerns

· infection from hospitals (including the emerging antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”

· scarring of tissues that can lead to painful inflammation
 
· expensive follow-up to surgery

· time consuming follow-up which may cause extended periods of leave from work (potentially adding to the overall cost of the salary in lost wages/salary)

· expensive medications to control swelling

·  possible damage to speech, including changing voice

· possible problems with swallowing

· possible hemorrhaging

· possible uncomfortable and distracting dry mouth

· possible intense ear pain