I have a horrible snoring issue and I have some problems with burnout, "brain fog", and inability to stay focused. I have a snorelab score in the 50s and my wife kicked me out of our bedroom since she can't sleep. I did a take-home sleep study with Kaiser once but they said I just have mild disordered sleeping but no apnea. I'm not super fat or anything either (BMI = 23.9).
It seems like I very likely have something similar to what OP has but I don't know how to get diagnosed properly. It's really hard to get a hold of Kaiser's head and neck surgery department too since they only take appointments by referral and can only be reached by voice message on the phone.
Many cardiologists also treat CPAP, since undiagnosed apnea can result in heart issues. Probably one of them could order a sleep study. In theory your PCP could order one too, but many are uneducated on apnea. My mother's PCP said she couldn't have it because she was "too cheerful".
Bear in mind, surgery is not considered the best treatment. Before you let someone cut you, you should really look at the numbers
The good news is, if you're snoring, you're still breathing. You might not be breathing well, but you are still breathing.
The bad news is, long term snoring will damage your airway, which could even cause sleep apnea in the long run.
You can (usually) treat snoring with CPAP, which is reasonably easy to do and low pressure settings will probably do the trick (compared to full blown apnea where more pressure might be required). Depending on what causes the snoring (flappy uvula, nasal congestion, whatever), different treatment options might be available.
What you probably want is a "sleep endoscopy". This is where they sedate you and look inside your airway as you take a nap. This can help doctors pinpoint the root cause of the snoring, which might set you up for a fix ...
A sleep test diagnoses sleep apnea. DISE can give clues, but Dr Kasey Li is against it saying it gives a lot of false positives from his experience. Home test + polysomnography is his standard, along with using his experience to review your CBCT scans
False positives? If you snore, you snore. All DISE is going to do is help figure out what's causing the snoring. I don't know this Dr Li, but you're making them sound like they're part of a cult.
I defer to his expertise for a lot as he's considered one of the top experts in sleep apnea surgery in the world. He's had more cases for example on MMA than aggregate studies in the literature
He considers DISE to show collapse that would not normally occur. Because under dise you are heavily sedated. Like after drinking alcohol, the airway is not the same as a normal state.
if you have the money, Dr. Kasey Li is the best sleep apnea surgeon in the bay area, possibly the world. He is the protoge of dr Christian Guilleminaul who is the founder of sleep apnea medicine. He does MMA and EASE, both of which solve structural issues if you have narrow airways. He also won't do it unless he thinks it will truly make a difference. One friend went to him for a MMA but he turned him away and referred him to cheaper surgeon as he thought the procedure would only partially help in his case. You are paying a down payment on a house though if you go with him
It is very difficult to get his procedures covered as he normally charges more than the customary rate and is out of network. I guess most of his procedures are out of pocket
It seems like I very likely have something similar to what OP has but I don't know how to get diagnosed properly. It's really hard to get a hold of Kaiser's head and neck surgery department too since they only take appointments by referral and can only be reached by voice message on the phone.