Sinusitis
Typical symptoms of Sinusitis:
- Yellow / Green nasal mucus
- Facial pain – worse on bending forward
- Headaches
What is the underlying problem?
- Your sinuses produce mucus 24/7
- If the narrow drainage channels to your sinuses are blocked due to swelling (like with hay fever) then mucus cannot drain
- the mucus builds up under pressure and can get infected
Medical options:
- Nasal Steroid sprays and even a short burst of oral steroid tablets reduce the swelling around the drainage channels –thus allowing mucus to exit and drain away
- Decongestant sprays like Vibrocil and Iliadin help too – but can only be used for 5 days maximum
- Increase water intake to thin down mucus
- if your mucus is thick and sticky (too little water consumption, too much tea and coffee)
- this thick mucus also has difficulty passing through the narrow channels of the nose
Surgical options:
The Aim is :
- to relieve any mechanical blockages like
- a deviated septum
- nasal polyps (overgrowth of nasal lining due to allergy)
- widen the natural drainage passages to the sinuses.
This is done using telescopes up the nose under general anaesthetic.
It literally is a plumbing procedure to ‘unblock the drains'