Preliminary Evaluation

Successful treatment of any disorder requires a thorough evaluation. Sleep disorders are no different. Our goal is to determine your sleep problem and offer a customized treatment plan. Every patient will undergo a comprehensive medical history. A questionnaire will be provided to better understand your overall health. This will include questions regarding your medications, existing health problems, previous surgeries and family history. We request that new patients arrive at least 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment to complete this paperwork.

Upon completion of the questionnaire, you will be evaluated by one of our physicians. During this interview, more detailed questions will be asked regarding your symptoms, sleep history, sleep patterns and level of fatigue. Many patients find it helpful if their bed partner joins them during the exam. Your bed partner may be able to offer insight into your breathing patterns and behaviors at night. This process allows us to better understand your sleep disorder. Based upon your answers, we will decide if additional diagnostic testing is needed.

If our physicians believe that you have a diagnosis of sleep apnea or snoring, further examination will be required. This consists of a complete anatomical evaluation of your airway. We will examine your nose, mouth, throat and neck to identify any sources of airway obstruction. Many patients have multiple areas of airway obstruction. Fiberoptic nasopharyngolaryngoscopy is essential to this evaluation. Basically, a small, flexible camera is used to visualize your entire upper airway. This exam is well tolerated and gives us the best possible tool to determine the size of your airway. It will be performed during your initial visit. Simply looking into a patient’s mouth or nose without one of these specialized cameras is not accurate in determining where your airway obstructs. In addition, during the exam we will have you perform maneuvers with your airway muscles to determine if a particular surgery will be effective for treating your type of obstruction.

Upon completion of these steps, your physician will decide if other testing is needed. These tests may include:

• Sleep study
• X-rays, CT scans
• Blood tests

Lastly, we will analyze all of the diagnostic testing. This allows us to design a successful snoring and sleep apnea treatment plan, and ultimately provide you with a better quality of life.

Equally important to our physicians are the goals and expectations of our patients. We do not believe that every patient needs or wants the same sleep disorder treatment. We will take this into consideration when discussing all available treatment options. Hopefully, when a patient leaves our Institute they will be armed with all of the available data to make an informed decision about their healthcare.