You had a stuffy nose for a few weeks. You also suffer from headaches and feel general weakness. You take tons of painkillers for your headaches, you buy a new bundle of tissues to blow your nose, and you don’t let such a minor problem affect your life. But you have been suffering for more than a month, and you understand that a cold cannot last so long. You finally have a light bulb and trudge to the doctor. After listening to all your difficulties and examining the forehead and face, the doctor says that you have a sinus infection or sinusitis.
Exacerbation of sinusitis can be really dangerous to health. Self-medication is not a good thing in general, but having sinusitis, it is especially important to see a doctor. And to identify it, you need to know its symptoms.
Symptoms of sinusitis
Sinusitis - inflammation or swelling of the tissues surrounding your sinuses. One of the most common symptoms of sinusitis is thick nasal secretion. It is also a pain in the sinuses that are involved. The sinuses are small voids. They are located inside your skull or inside the bones surrounding your nose. And these spaces are named after the bones that contain them. So you have:
- frontal sinuses, located in the eyebrows;
- the maxillary sinuses contained by each zygomatic bone;
- ethmoid sinuses, between the eyes and behind the bridge of the nose;
- sandwich sinuses, behind the eyes and in the upper part of the nose.
Thus, pain in these places is one of the most obvious symptoms of sinusitis. You can also feel the tension and “extra weight” in your face. Just imagine that the holes in your bones are filled with extra mucus, which creates internal pressure, and you will understand what it is. People suffering from this disease usually experience pain in several places, making it difficult to determine which sinuses are inflamed. Other symptoms include reduced sense of smell and bad breath, sore throat and cough, fatigue, fever.
Medicine for sinusitis
A sinus infection can be acute (lasts up to four weeks) and chronic (lasts more than four weeks ... and, possibly, for many years). But in both cases, treatment can help. Of course, the medicine must be prescribed by your doctor. But it is always more efficient when combined with self-catering.
You can apply warm heat to your face, inhale the vapor, drink a lot of liquid and have a good rest. Nasal irrigation will be very helpful when you are washing the nasal cavity to wash out excess mucus and debris. For this you can use a neti pot or a bulb syringe. Use sterile or pre-boiled water to prepare salt solution for irrigation. By combining these methods with medical prescriptions, you will soon be healthy.
But prevention is better than cure. To prevent sinusitis, always treat with a stuffy nose as soon as possible, and if it is caused by allergies, avoid what you are allergic to. Minimize smoking, as smoke causes irritation and inflammation of your nasal membranes. Do not inhale dry air, use a humidifier in all rooms where you spend a lot of time. Avoid long periods of swimming in pools where water is treated with chlorine, and avoid water immersion, as this leads to water entering the sinuses. Finally, just live a healthy lifestyle, and your body will have a proper immune system to avoid illness.
