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Sinusitis is acute or chronic inflammation in the nose or paranasal sinuses. Some of
the newer studies say between 14 to 16 percent of people in the United States might suffer
from various forms of sinusitis.
Most of the time people with sinusitis have some sort of constellation of symptoms of
facial pressure or pain. It is usually around their eyes, above their eyes, below their
eyes and between their eyes. A decreased of smell and decreased airflow through the nose.
Either one or both sides or an alternating airflow, a decrease is very common. We also
see a lot of drainage from the nose.
Acute sinusitis which is a shorter duration of symptoms and then there is an intermediate
sinusitis called a subacute sinusitis, which is generally from four to 12 weeks of symptoms.
Then there is chronic sinusitis, with a duration of 12 weeks or longer of symptoms related
to sinusitis.
It depends on the type. If you’re an acute sinusitis, meaning your duration of symptoms
hasn’t been very long, most of the time it is related to a virus and mostly treated
with supportive therapy. Nasal rinses, steroid nasal sprays, decongestants, mucolytics, those
kinds of things. For the broad population of patients with chronic sinusitis there is
no cure. We are dealing with a quality of life disease. There are a few instances where
that’s not true. What our goal is in managing it is to try and improve your quality of life.