Sinusitis is among the most common inflammatory diseases of the paranasal sinuses. Its causative agents are many - bacteria, viruses, fungi, but most often the infection is mixed. By its nature, it is an acute or chronic inflammation that passes from the nasal cavity into the sinus cavity. This inflammation can affect the frontal as well as the maxillary, ethmoidal and sphenoidal sinuses. The most common cause of its manifestation is the common cold.
Other factors provoking sinus inflammation can be the distortion of the nasal septum, an enlarged third tonsil and a weakened immune system. Sinusitis can also develop with influenza diseases, with infections in the oral cavity and inflammation of the teeth themselves. Other causative agents can be various disease-causing microorganisms, and in chronic sinusitis the causative agent is not constant, but different with each cycle of intensification of the disease action.
The symptoms of sinusitis are most often runny nose, stuffy nose, headache, sneezing, swelling of the nasal mucosa. Other characteristic signs are red throat, high fever, chills, muscle aches, swelling around the eyes. Mucinous or purulent discharge with an unpleasant odour flows from the nostrils.
With maxillary sinus inflammation, the pain is in the upper jaw, and can often fool us into thinking we have a tooth or gum problem. The pain may also be in the root of the nose or the inner corner of the eye. In frontal sinusitis, the pain is concentrated in the frontal area. When the sphenoid sinus is affected, the headache is in the occipital region of the head along the depth of the orbits. It is accompanied with heaviness on bending and turning the head.
