Chronic sinusitis treatment
A sinus infection, otherwise known by its scientific name chronic sinusitis, can be one of the most irritating types of common illnesses. This common condition, characterized by inflamed and swollen cavities surrounding a person’s nasal passages, interferes with the nasal passages’ normal draining and causes mucus to build up in the sinuses. Chronic sinusitis is irritating because, unlike a broken arm – which we can stop using if it becomes injured, it involves something we must do nearly every second of our lives – breathing. If you have a sinus infection, you can find that you have difficulty breathing through your nose. This may lead to pain in some cases, such as when extreme pressure build up causes swelling, throbbing or headache, but most often it simply leads to annoyance and a general feeling of illness.
Chronic sinusitis is most often caused by an infection. This infection can spread from sick person to sick person by personal contact such as hugging, kissing, or touching, or even through contact with a germy surface that a sick person has touched, such as touching a dirty door knob, plate, or other object. Germs are not the only cause of sinusitis, though. Chronic sinusitis can also be caused by nasal polyps (small growths in the sinuses) or a deviated nasal septum (sometimes caused by an injury to the nose.)
It is important to differentiate chronic sinusitis from acute sinusitis. Acute sinusitis is what many people call a “sinus infection” and it occurs most commonly through the usual spread of germs. Children or people who work with children are especially prone to bouts of acute sinusitis. Chronic sinusitis, on the other hand, is a phrase used to characterize sinusitis that lasts for longer than eight weeks or fails to complete clear up and instead recurs.
If you think you have this condition, you should seek chronic sinusitis treatment. Some signs and symptoms of chronic sinusitis include congestion or a feeling of nasal obstruction, difficult breathing through the nose, a thick yellow or greenish mucus draining from the nose or down the back of the throat, pain and tenderness in the sinus areas (around the eyes, around the cheeks, around the nose, and around the forehead), aching or tenderness in the upper jaw or teeth, a rancid sense of smell or taste, and a cough (which may worse at night), sore throat, sore ear, bad breath, fatigue or irritability, and nausea.
It’s important to know when to seek treatment for chronic sinusitis. You should see a doctor about your sinusitis if your symptoms last longer than eight weeks or continue to come back time and time again. You may be tempted to think that, if you do not have a fever, then you are not sick, but with chronic sinusitis, this is not the case. You should seek chronic sinusitis treatment when you remain sick with sinusitis for a long period of time regardless of whether or not you are suffering from a fever.
You should seek chronic sinusitis treatment if you have sinusitis that fails to respond to treatment of symptoms, if you have pain or swelling around your eyes, you have a severe headache, you are experiencing neurological symptoms such as confusion or double vision, you have a stiff neck, or you are experiencing respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath. Remember, chronic sinusitis negatively affects your nasal passages, which can affect your ability to breath and thus live. Chronic sinusitis can cause your nasal passage and throat to swell up. Do not leave your chronic sinusitis treatment too late and risk respiratory failure.
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