A Sinus Infection: Something Your Doctor Can Treat

Sinus Infections, aka sinusitis, can be a real drag on your life. Seriously, the pain in your face, congestion in your head, that nagging cough, and headaches can really wreak havoc on your life. Let me tell you ways you can figure out if it’s just a cold/allergies or an acute sinus infection that can be treated with antibiotics.

Face Pain and Headaches

Often, you will have face pain in the maxillary sinuses (just below your eyes) or the ethmoid sinuses (in-between your eyes just behind your nose), and frontal sinuses (just above your nose, near your lower forehead). This face pain can increase when you go from lying to standing (the moving of the mucous can cause intense pain). These can trigger intense, nagging headaches.

Thick Discharge from Your Nose – aka Snot

Yep, that thick yellow and green stuff coming from your nose, often draining down your throat causing you to cough it up, is also known as snot. It’s a sign of your sinuses are discharging pus and it causes some gross stuff to go through your nose and down your throat.

Prior Viral Infection and Congestion

Here’s where doctors have a hard time with sinus infections. The first thing that happens prior to getting a sinus infection is a cold. This cold causes increase mucous. The problem is, this snot gets thick and clogs up the small passageways of your sinuses. When these narrow passageways get clogged up, they sits still, which then gets infected (when our body fluid sits still, it gets infected – see what happens when urine sits still), and the headaches, face pain, and fever can become intense.

Double Dip or Double Worsening Sign

This is a trick of the Ear Nose Throat Doctors. They have found that many of their patients with sinus infections get a prior viral infection (aka a cold) and after 7-10 days get significantly better. Then wham! They get face pain, increased green and yellow nasal discharge, and fever. When I hear this story of getting better then worse, it’s always a sinus infection.

Treatment

There’s been a lot of science about the treatment of sinus infections. If a patient truly has a sinus infection, then antibiotics do work. Many doctors worry about the over prescribing of antibiotics. This certainly can happen. We do not want to treat colds with antibiotics because they don’t work and we do increase resistance by doing this. However, if you have face pain, fever, and snotty drainage from your nose, then there’s a good chance that an antibiotic will help get rid of it. Talk to your doctor!

Steroid sprays also help decrease the inflammation of the sinuses. Lastly, nasal rinses, such as the Neti Pot, can really help keep the sinus drainage openings intact. Even the Ear, Nose, Throat doctors encourage Neti Pot rinses for those with chronic sinus infections.

Here at Innovative Express Care, we actually have the antibiotics to purchase right here at our clinic! Amoxicillin, Augmentin, Levofloxacin, Z-packs, and Clindamycin are all sold for $15 each. We even have nasal steroid sprays to help with the sinus inflammation.

Click here to book an appointment now! You have no reason to suffer from your sinus infections anymore!

Image Source: Tina Franklin