What Is Sinusitis?
Sinusitis refers to the swelling of your sinuses, which makes it difficult for mucus to drain properly. This can lead to a stuffy nose, difficulty breathing and pain in the area around your eyes.
Sinusitis affects more than 30 million people in the United States, making it the country’s number one reported chronic condition. Acute sinusitis is typically caused by a cold and resolves within one week, while sinusitis that lasts more than 12 weeks is considered chronic.
Sinusitis can be uncomfortable, but there are options for treating your symptoms. Our team at California Sinus Centers can work with you to provide the highest quality treatment while minimizing your discomfort.
What Are the Symptoms of Sinusitis?
People with sinusitis often experience cold-like symptoms such as nasal congestion and discharge, postnasal drip, sore throat, facial pressure and swelling, loss of smell and taste, headache, fever, fatigue and bad breath.
What Causes Sinusitis?
The most common reason for developing sinusitis is an unresolved cold or viral upper respiratory tract infection. Allergies are also a common cause of developing sinusitis. In both cases, swelling of the nasal lining causes the openings of the sinuses to become blocked, allowing mucus to buildup within the sinuses, and bacteria to settle in.
If symptoms fail to improve or begin to worsen over the first 5-7 days, a course of oral antibiotics is often prescribed. The choice of antibiotics is based on what is known about the most common types of bacteria that tend to cause sinusitis. Some patients may require more than one course of antibiotics for their sinusitis to fully resolve. If patients fail to resolve with antibiotics, or if they develop sinus infections more than four times a year, a consultation with an ENT physician may be helpful.
How Do ENTs Diagnose Sinusitis?
An ENT physician (otolaryngologist), can sometimes obtain bacterial cultures from the sinuses to help determine whether an infection has been fully treated, or whether a different type of antibiotic is necessary. An ENT physician can also examine a patient for anatomic issues or the presence of nasal polyps that may cause them to be more prone to developing frequent sinus infections.
Your doctor will begin by asking about your symptoms and how they’ve been impacting your life. They will also perform a physical exam, likely feeling your nose and face for tenderness and looking inside your nose. Imaging tests, allergy tests and cultures of nasal and sinus discharge may also be part of the diagnostic process.
What Treatment Options Are Available?
Acute sinusitis will typically resolve on its own. Symptoms can be managed with over-the-counter pain medications, allergy medications and saline nasal spray.
If you have chronic sinusitis, your ENT will work with you to create a treatment plan customized to your needs. Options include:
- Avoiding triggers, particularly if your symptoms are the result of allergies
- Corticosteroid sprays to reduce inflammation in the sinuses
- Treating underlying conditions like allergies or asthma
- Surgery to correct a deviated septum or remove nasal polyps
- A balloon sinuplasty, which is a surgical procedure in which a balloon is inserted into the sinuses to further open them
When medical therapy fails, a CT scan of the sinuses may be recommended to evaluate for the continued presence of infection or inflammation within the sinuses that is not clearing or structural issues.
Sinusitis can be uncomfortable, but your symptoms don’t have to disrupt your daily life. California Sinus Centers is here to partner with you as you take the next steps in caring for your health.
Call California Sinus Centers for more information or to schedule an appointment.