What Is Sinusitis?

What is sinusitis? Generally, it’s when you have a “stuffy” nose. And, yes, that’s the bottom line, but you may need to find out why this is happening to you.

What is sinusitis?

Your sinuses, a group of holes near your nose, make mucus that flows through your nose to keep it from accumulating bacteria.

You have four pairs of sinuses, or eight in all. The maxillary sinuses are on each side of your nose, near your cheek bones. The frontal sinuses are above the eyes, near your forehead. The ethmoid sinuses are on each side of the bridge of your nose, near your eyes. The sphenoid sinuses lie behind the eyes, deeper into your skull.

Air normally flows through these holes easily. If you have sinusitis, your nose feels congested or stuffed-up because the tissue inside the sinuses has become inflamed and swells up, blocking the movement of air.

Some people just get stuffed up occasionally. For others, it’s a recurrent problem. This isn’t a minor matter — imagine feeling like you have a cold most of the time and trying to keep up your regular activities.

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Acute bacterial sinusitis

This type of sinusitis can follow an ordinary cold, which builds up over a few days, and peaks. You might feel congested, have a runny nose or feel pain in your face, and have a poor sense of smell. These symptoms are a reaction to cold viruses that trigger inflammation in your sinuses.

In some cases, you might accumulate bacteria within the sinusitis cavities, an infection. At this point, the mucus in your nose will be thick and yellow or green rather than thin and clear.

Suspect bacterial sinusitis if you have facial pain that doesn’t go away after 10 days, or your cold seems to get better and then gets much worse again. You may need antibiotics to fight the bacterial buildup (they won’t affect any virus).

This is more likely to happen to people who smoke, or have allergies, asthma, or a crooked bone (deviated septum) within the nose, which means one nostril is bigger than the other.

To avoid sinusitis:

• Wash your hands frequently to minimize the spread of viruses.
• Drink plenty of fluids to keep your mucus thin.
• Use a humidifier in the winter season, when the air tends to be drier, to keep your nose moist.
• Try using a nasal saline spray to irrigate your nose, or a device to irrigate your nose and loosen the mucus.
• Keep dust down, dusting and vacuuming often, especially in the bedroom.

Chronic sinusitis

Some people get infections that last for months or come back four times in a year, often because another condition like allergies is contributing. The first-line treatment will be irrigating your nose with saline solution and prescribed intranasal corticosteroid sprays.

If you have allergies, your sinus tissue became inflamed because of contact with dust, pollen, dander, or some other irritant, often related to the season. You might sneeze, and your nose and eyes might itch.

Some less common symptoms of chronic sinusitis include toothaches, headaches, ear pain, cough, tiredness, and fever.

Should I have surgery for chronic sinusitis?

It’s possible a deviated septum or a growth in your nose, called polyps, is part of a chronic problem, and you might consider surgery. The surgeon can remove blockages and enlarge the sinus passages, making it easier for them to drain.

Most people don’t have nostrils exactly the same size, but, if the difference is big because of a deviated septum, you may run into frequent infections, trouble breathing when you have a cold or allergies, frequent nosebleeds, and a tendency to snore.

Evidence suggests surgery to clear the nasal passages helps, especially for people with polyps. However, polyps grew back in nearly 80 percent of the patients over 12 years in a small study, and more than a third had a second surgery. It is also possible to fight polyps with medication, other research shows.

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