Generally, we apply the tongue stem cell method in patients with advanced sleep apnea and patients with severe snoring, especially when a large tongue root is observed during physical examination, and if the distance between the tongue root and the posterior wall of the pharynx is narrow. There are several methods we apply under the name of tongue root surgery. One of them is the Tongue Hanger method. In the tongue hanger method, the hanger passing through the tongue root, fixed especially with a steel wire, is attached to a bone tissue at the lower levels and allows the tongue to be pulled down. In this way, it relaxes the patient's breathing by widening the anterior and posterior diameters and the tongue groove.
How Is Tongue Root Surgery Performed?
Another method is to remove a piece from the tongue root, which we call resection from the tongue root. It is one of the most effective methods. There is only the risk of bleeding, and the patients should be followed up correctly and the hospitalization period of the patient should be at least 2 days.
Both of these methods require anesthesia and the operation takes about 1 hour.