LAX Leader

Sinus experts are offering advice on how best to prevent sinus infections during the winter.

The sinuses are hollow, air-filled cavities that can become inflamed for various reasons. To prevent sinus infections, experts recommend that people wash their hands thoroughly before eating and after coming in from outside. Clean your carpets and rugs often and keep the furniture, bedding and surfaces clean. Avoid pet dander and keep the windows closed. Use a humidifier in your home. Drink enough water so that your sinuses won't dry out, and cover your face when going out in the cold, suggests the Hindustan Times.

Viruses, bacteria or even fungus can cause inflammation to the sinuses. If the infection is viral, it can be passed onto others.

"There's different kinds of sinus pain or facial pain that patients get," Dr. Glenn Waldman of Bella Vista ENT & Facial Plastic Surgery told LAX Leader. "There's the kind that comes from chronic infection and chronic inflammation, where in those cases, the sinus opening becomes swollen shut, and the sinuses are still making mucus. Now the mucus is infected, and it's filling up the sinus under pressure, so it's like a water balloon that's constantly expanding. 

Common symptoms of a sinus infection include a runny nose, a severe headache, congestion, facial pain and even tooth pain. Ignoring these symptoms for too long can worsen the symptoms and aggravate the pain.

"One of your main sensory nerves are sensation nerves for the whole middle part of your face," Waldman said. "You can put a lot of pressure on that nerve with a buildup of inflammation in your sinus. Also, at the other side of that sinus, the floor of that sinus is the roots to your teeth, which are millimeters away from that side. So you're going to get that pain in your teeth because that inflammation is pushing right down on the roots of your teeth."

If symptoms become serious enough, Waldman recommends oral antibiotics in limited doses.

"We try to limit the amount of oral antibiotics that we prescribe," Waldman said. "Even when we think medical therapy is the right path for the patient, we will use probably limited oral antibiotics and more topicals. So we use a lot of saline rinses with antibiotics and steroids, sometimes antifungals mixed in with the rinse. So now you're doing a topical treatment, as opposed to a systemic treatment, that doesn't get absorbed by way of the GI system."

Balloon sinuplasty procedures may also be an option for those with chronic symptoms. Balloon sinuplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that can be done right in the doctor's office, which carries a low risk of side effects and a short recovery period.

It's important for patients to determine the nature of their symptoms to choose the best course of action to relieve pain. If you want to evaluate your symptoms and think you might benefit from seeing a doctor, take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.