What Is Sinusitis and How Is It Treated?

Sinusi­tis is one of the most incom­pre­hen­si­ble zakalyak in the card that hap­pens to peo­ple when a cold comes or, for exam­ple, aller­gy sea­son. What is sinusi­tis? How does it appear? What to do with him? We under­stand the details.

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The sinus­es are clogged, the face hurts and it seems as if some­thing is press­ing on the inside of the nose. This is sinusi­tis. Well, or rhi­nos­i­nusi­tis, as doc­tors pre­fer to say.

Rhi­nos­i­nusi­tis is an inflam­ma­tion of the sinus mucosa and the nasal mucosa at the same time. The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Oto­laryn­gol­o­gy and Head and Neck Surgery Foun­da­tion says that sinusi­tis can feel like a very bad cold. The dura­tion of the dis­ease depends on the per­son who is sick — some­one can move with sinusi­tis for a cou­ple of days, and some­one is lying around for weeks.

What is sinusitis

The World Aller­gy Orga­ni­za­tion states that sinusi­tis (rhi­nos­i­nusi­tis) is an inflam­ma­tion of the tis­sue that lines the sinus­es and nose.

To under­stand what exact­ly hap­pens when a per­son has rhi­nos­i­nusi­tis, you need to con­sid­er the anato­my of the upper res­pi­ra­to­ry tract. There are four hol­low spaces behind the fore­head, on the cheeks and along the nose. They are filled with air and are called sinus­es. The sinus­es affect the pitch and tim­bre of the voice, reduce the weight of the head, and also pro­duce mucus.

The Amer­i­can Col­lege of Aller­gy, Asth­ma, and Immunol­o­gy states that mucus helps trap dust, microor­gan­isms, and pol­lu­tants that enter the nose. The nose con­tains what are called cil­ia, tiny hair-like struc­tures that nat­u­ral­ly draw mucus down the back of the throat, where it can be swal­lowed.

If the defense mech­a­nism fails and some­thing goes wrong, the irri­tants cause swelling, which blocks the nor­mal drainage of the sinus­es, and then there is a lot of mucus in them. She has nowhere to go. Hence the symp­toms of sinusi­tis.

Types of sinusitis

There are dif­fer­ent types of sinusi­tis to look out for:

• Spicy. Symp­toms last about four weeks and often go away on their own. It hap­pens viral and bac­te­r­i­al.
• Sub­a­cute. Symp­toms are observed from 4 to 12 weeks.
• Chron­ic sinusi­tis — symp­toms per­sist for up to 12 weeks or longer.
• recur­rent - when sinusi­tis recurs four or more times a year.

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The symptom is sinusitis

Sinusi­tis caus­es a range of symp­toms, which include:

• run­ny nose;
• nasal con­ges­tion;
• pain in the face;
• face pres­sure;
• headache;
• sore throat;
• cough;
• bad breath.

There is also chron­ic sinusi­tis, and with its exac­er­ba­tion, the fol­low­ing symp­toms are observed:

• thick yel­low or green dis­charge from the nose;
• pain in the teeth;
• ear pain;
• cough;
• fatigue;
• loss of taste and smell.

Doc­tors also believe that a bac­te­r­i­al infec­tion may also cause a fever.

When they appear, do not hes­i­tate to vis­it the otorhi­no­laryn­gol­o­gist. At the ini­tial stage, sinusi­tis responds well to treat­ment.

How is sinusitis treated?

The doc­tor will select vaso­con­stric­tor drops, anti­sep­tic and immunos­tim­u­lat­ing agents. In addi­tion, he may pre­scribe antibi­otics or anti­fun­gal med­ica­tions if tests show that the cul­prit of sinusi­tis is bac­te­ria or a fun­gal infec­tion.

The doc­tor’s reg­i­men for tak­ing med­ica­tions must be strict­ly observed! Here’s what else can make things eas­i­er.

Inhalations for sinusitis

Do inhala­tion. Steam inhala­tion can help reduce the symp­toms of acute and chron­ic sinusi­tis. Essen­tial oils of med­i­c­i­nal plants, such as fir, euca­lyp­tus, laven­der, rose­mary or mint, can be added to the water. Warm com­press­es placed on the bridge of the nose and wings of the nose have a good anal­gesic effect. But remem­ber: you can warm the sinus­es of the nose only after con­sult­ing with your doc­tor. The fact is that with insuf­fi­cient out­flow of pus from the sinus, warm­ing pro­ce­dures can lead to increased headache and exac­er­ba­tion of the dis­ease.

Sinusitis treatments: UHF, microwaves, quartz

Var­i­ous phys­io­ther­a­py pro­ce­dures (blue light, solux, UHF, microwaves) help to quick­ly elim­i­nate the unpleas­ant symp­toms of sinusi­tis. The choice of method depends on the local­iza­tion of the inflam­ma­to­ry process (in which of the sinus­es is the focus of inflam­ma­tion). You also need to con­sid­er that phys­io­ther­a­py is con­traindi­cat­ed in hyper­plas­tic, poly­pous, cys­tic sinusi­tis.

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Clearing the nasal passages

To elim­i­nate nasal con­ges­tion and help local immu­ni­ty to cope with bac­te­ria and virus­es, reg­u­lar­ly rinse the nasal pas­sages. Thanks to this pro­ce­dure, the mucous mem­brane is moist­ened, and mucus and microbes are removed from the nose.

For wash­ing, it is bet­ter to use iso­ton­ic saline solu­tions (includ­ing sea water), which are sold in phar­ma­cies. Or you can pre­pare a heal­ing solu­tion your­self.

Take 1 tsp. a spoon­ful of sea salt and dis­solve its con­tents in a glass of warm water. For one wash, 200 ml of solu­tion is usu­al­ly used, 100 ml for each nos­tril.

Pro­ce­dures are car­ried out for 2 weeks 2–4 times a day.

In order to rinse the nasal pas­sage, it is nec­es­sary to draw the solu­tion into one nos­tril, and then spit out the water through the mouth. The same must be done through the sec­ond nos­tril. Thus, the nasal pas­sages and nasophar­ynx will be cleared of bac­te­ria.

Prevention of sinusitis

To pre­vent the devel­op­ment of sinusi­tis, try to strength­en the immune sys­tem and treat a run­ny nose in time. This is nec­es­sary so that the ede­ma does not rise high­er into the max­il­lary sinus­es. Take imme­di­ate action at the first sign of dis­com­fort. Rinse your nose with saline solu­tions, take hot foot baths, and drink as much as you can. Lemon tea, rose­hip or black­cur­rant decoc­tion con­tain a lot of vit­a­min C, which increas­es the body’s resis­tance to infec­tion.

The fol­low­ing meth­ods will also help:

• wash my hands more often;
• treat asth­ma, aller­gies and oth­er relat­ed dis­eases;
• quit smok­ing and stay away from smoky rooms if pos­si­ble;
• use saline solu­tion;
• humid­i­fy the air;
• avoid con­tact with sick peo­ple;
• avoid dehy­dra­tion;
• go in for sports;
• eat a healthy diet;
• get vac­ci­nat­ed.

And most impor­tant­ly, take care of your health!