Harvey S. Shiffman: TwinLight NightLase Protocol for Snoring Reduction Therapy
TwinLight NightLase® is a thermally mediated treatment that uses focal Er:YAG and Nd:YAG laser energy to cause collagen contraction and conversion to type III collagen and type I collagen in the tissues. The improvement of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea is based on the opening of the airway as a result of this contraction.
Nd:YAG laser energy is used to pre-heat the soft tissues and then followed up with the SMOOTH mode Er:YAG treatment modality that delivers laser energy into the mucosa in a fast sequence of low-fluence laser pulses inside an overall super-long pulse of 200-350 msec. Because SMOOTH mode pulses are longer than the mucosal thermal relaxation time, the effect of SMOOTH mode is gentle coagulative heating of the mucosa without any significant ablation of the tissue.
The combination of these two wavelengths (borrowed from dermatology) allows for a faster gentle heating of the mucosal tissues. FLIR (forward looking infra red) camera studies have confirmed the efficacy of this protocol in obtaining the amount of gentle heat deposition needed to convert collagen and initiate neo-collagenesis. Significant reductions in snoring volume and tone and improvements in airway volume and reduction of SDB have been shown following this protocol.
