Chronic sinusitis often feels like a never-ending cold or a sinus infection that just won’t ease up. When it comes to helping you with troublesome sinuses, our care team’s collaborative approach will feel like a breath of fresh air.
We know noses
Your sinuses make up a system that touches 4 parts of your face: between the eyes, cheeks, lower forehead and nose. That’s why when you have a sinus infection, you can feel pressure across your face or like your head is underwater.
We look at 2 major factors that can cause your sinuses to act up:
- Your environment, like the trees in your backyard
- Your anatomy, like the positioning of bones in your nose
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Conditions
Common symptoms of chronic sinusitis (or rhinosinusitis) may include:
- Change in voice
- Facial pain
- Hoarseness
- Loss of smell
- Nasal obstruction
- Runny nose
- Trouble sleeping
These symptoms can link to:
- Environmental allergies: These are relatively common and can be a major factor in developing chronic rhinosinusitis.
- Nasal polyps: Nasal polyps are little inflamed sacs that line the nose or sinuses. We can remove them, but polyps can grow back. Nasal polyps can link to aspirin sensitivity and asthma.
- Structural or cartilage abnormalities: People with structural or cartilage abnormalities often struggle with their sinuses because of bone abnormalities blocking where the sinuses drain.
Other less common conditions that cause chronic sinusitis include:
- Immune deficiencies
- Fungal hypersensitivity sinusitis
- Forms of vasculitis, like Wegener’s Granulomatosis
Testing
Our teams of allergists and ENT specialists know a thing or two about noses. To better understand yours and the rest of your sinuses, we’ll perform one or a combination of the following diagnostics:
- Allergy skin testing
- Immune system testing for immunoglobulin levels and responses to pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines
- Sinus CT scan
- Nasal endoscopy
- Testing for aspirin sensitivity
Treatments
We don’t want you to suffer from chronic sinusitis any longer. Your treatment plan may include one or a combination of the following treatments:
- Topical nasal corticosteroid regimens and nasal irrigations
- Antibiotics paired with other measuress
- Oral corticosteroid regimens (typically short-term and used to treat bacterial or fungal infections or nasal polyps)
- Nasal surgery or functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS)
- Allergen immunotherapy (subcutaneous immunotherapy is our standard treatment, but we can consider sublingual immunotherapy)
- Aspirin desensitization
- Immunoglobulin replacement for immunodeficiency
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