Treat sinusitis as soon as it starts

Sinusitis, Treatments, Antibiotics, Surgery

It is important to treat a sinus infection as soon as it starts. Treatment involves controlling the source of sinus infection, re-establishing proper nasal drainage, and relieving pain.

Home

The following methods of home treatment may get sinuses draining normally again.

Drink extra fluids to thin mucus. Drink at least eight glasses (15 to 20 ideally) of water per day. Some sinusitis medications may make you thirsty.
Breathe moist air from a humidifier, hot shower, or sink filled with hot water. Increase home humidity, especially in the bedrooms. (If you are allergic, keep humidity under 50% to prevent mould and dust mite growth.)
Use oral decongestants, decongestant nasal sprays, or mucus-thinning agents. Do not use a nasal spray longer than three days. Avoid products containing antihistamines.
Take aspirin, acetaminophen (paracetamol) or ibuprofen for headache.
Check the back of your throat for postnasal drip. If streaks of mucus appear, gargle with warm water to prevent a sore throat.
Elevate your head at night.
Buffered Saline (salt-water + bicarbonate of soda) irrigation helps wash mucus and bacteria out of the nasal passages. Use a bulb syringe to gently squirt the solution into your nose, one nostril at a time with your head bent forwards to encourage the solution to go into the roof of your nose. Sniff it through and then spit it out. Blow your nose gently afterwards. Repeat two to four times a day.
Try to keep your nose clear so you can breathe through it. Air exchange into the sinuses occurs twice as rapidly with nasal breathing as with mouth breathing. Air exchange reduces the likelihood of bacteria growing in the sinuses.
Avoid alcohol. It functions as a diuretic, i.e. it may cause dehydration, leading to drying and thickening of mucus. This may in turn cause blockage of the ostia and worsen infection. Allergies to red wine, yeast, sulphites or other components of alcohol may compound the problem by causing allergic swelling of the nose.
Breathing in eucalyptus oils may help open the nose in some cases.
Some people report that breathing in garlic fumes helps.
Several non-traditional treatments have been used in the treatment of sinusitis. Acupuncture has been claimed to help the condition, but no studies confirm this.
Non-drug treatments should be used together with prescription medication to avoid serious complications.

Medication

Acute sinusitis is usually treated with antibiotic therapy aimed at fighting the most common bacteria known to cause sinusitis, since it is usually not possible to get a reliable culture without aspirating the sinuses.

Commonly used antibiotics such as penicillin, erythromycin and tetracycline do not generally work because the bacteria are usually resistant. Antibiotics such as amoxicillin and sulfa drugs may be used as first-line treatment for uncomplicated acute sinus infections, but commonly do not work in people who have had infections for more than a short period or who have been on multiple antibiotics previously. It may then be necessary to use one of the newer antibiotics.

Because antibiotics penetrate poorly into the sinuses, extended treatment is often necessary. Sometimes several different antibiotics are used until the correct one is found. In some cases multiple antibiotics are used. If you are not improving after five days of treatment with amoxicillin, your doctor may decide to switch you to another antibiotic. Generally an antibiotic must be continued for at least 10 to 14 days. It is, however, not unusual to have to continue treatment for sinusitis up to six to eight weeks.

Although antibiotics are important in sinus infection treatment, mucus must be allowed to drain adequately. This is done by using nasal sprays read more