Sunshine Sentinel

If you're dealing with chronic or acute sinusitis, Dr. Matthew Blair of Gulf Coast Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers may have a solution to bring you relief.

Acute sinusitis causes the spaces inside your nose (sinuses) to become inflamed and swollen, according to Mayo Clinic. This interferes with drainage and causes mucus to build up, which can cause sufferers to feel pretty miserable. 

"Facial pain is a common complaint I get a lot, but not all facial pain is sinus disease," Blair told Sunshine Sentinel. "There's other things that can cause facial pain, but it's my job as an otolaryngologist to really rule out the sinuses as a problem. Severe sinus disease usually causes a lot of facial pain, usually in the upper teeth. We look at not only if you're having facial pain, but what other nasal symptoms are you having? Are you having trouble breathing through your nose? Are you stuffy all the time? How long does your pain last? How often do you have it? All these things really tell us, and then we do our exam. We really determine, is your pain coming from your sinuses? If it is, we'll definitely treat it and fix it."

Dr. Matthew Blair | Gulf Coast Breathe Free

With acute sinusitis, it might be difficult to breathe through the nose. The area around the eyes and face might feel swollen, and patients may have throbbing facial pain or a headache, according to Mayo Clinic.

"If you choose to go the route where you would treat your sinuses with antibiotics for every sinus infection that you have over a long period of time, you can develop antibiotic resistance, as we call it," Blair explained. "So the antibiotics may work the first couple times. But it may not work the third or fourth or the fifth or the sixth time because the bacteria in your sinuses has been really taught how to avoid those antibiotics through biologic processes. And this is always a worry, as well as prolonged antibiotics can have side effects."

Blair often recommends a balloon dilation procedure to treat chronic sinusitis. This effective, minimally invasive treatment is done in the office and has a very quick recovery time.

Acute sinusitis is most likely to be caused by the common cold. Unless a bacterial infection develops, most cases resolve within a week to 10 days. Home remedies may be all you need to treat acute sinusitis. However, sinusitis that lasts more than 12 weeks, despite medical treatment, is considered chronic sinusitis.

To evaluate your symptoms, take the sinus quiz provided by Gulf Coast Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers.