Sinusitis is an inflammation of one or more of the four sinuses (maxillary, frontal, or sphenoidal ethmoïdal) that includes the human body.
What are sinuses?
The sinus cavities are air, so filled with air, located in the bones of the face (on the forehead and cheeks) and those that constitute the base of the skull. They are in contact with the nose and throat and therefore the air-through small holes.
They grow during childhood until about 12-13 years. At birth, only the sine of the ethmoid bone (a small bone in the nose between the two eyes) is present.
Sinusitis is a disease of the sinuses
Sinusitis is an inflammation of the lining of the sinuses. It is most often caused by a bacterial infection secondary to an affection of the upper airway (mouth-nose-throat) as a cold for example.
A trailing cold
Classically, it is a cold that hangs beyond a week: the patient feels to have his head full, the nose is "taken", he flies, the drying is more or less abundant, the voice is more or less nasillarde he coughs sometimes, a headache especially focusing forward (shoe laces), the pressure above the eyes or the eyes is painful, he has a fever.
The mucous membranes lining the sinuses are swollen, the openings communicating with the nose are more or less blocked, stagnant secretions within the sinus cavities as they are not evacuated everything together to create an increase of pressure in these cavities and cause pain.
It is likely that the cold has a complicated bacterial infection, the patient has fever and is acute sinusitis.
Do not drag sinusitis
The problem with this disease, apart from the discomfort caused, the risk of transition to chronicity where treatments are less effective.
Then we must properly care: first, with simple means to drain the sinuses: drying, washing the nose with a product such as hypertonic saline solution (sold in pharmacies) or otherwise, or inhalations from essential oils in a bowl of hot water (there are preparations made in a pharmacy) and sometimes the change of position may help drain the sinuses, it is also possible to drop decongestant in the nose, they reduce the swelling of mucous membranes and open the openings of the sinuses. Warning! We must not give to children under 12 years or using them too long because these products may eventually be harmful.
Once the sinuses are cleared, the pain fades, as the pain persists, the patient can of course take painkillers, it is useless to suffer.
In most cases it will also take antibiotics to control bacterial infection. The patient's best interest to follow the antibiotic treatment until the end, a minimum of 5 days is required even if the disease appears before ending, as in any bacterial infection, there is a risk of relapse if the sinuses are not fully cleaned.
Sometimes sinusitis is very painful, pulsatile, there is no secretion externalised, the patient has a fever, it is likely that an abscess is formed in the sinuses, but must act quickly to clear the sinuses and prevent a spread of infection to adjacent organs.
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