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Sinus Care

Chronic sinusitis often feels like a never-ending cold or a sinus infection that just won’t ease up. When it comes to helping you with troublesome sinuses, our care team’s collaborative approach will feel like a breath of fresh air.

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We know noses

Your sinuses make up a system that touches 4 parts of your face: between the eyes, cheeks, lower forehead and nose. That’s why when you have a sinus infection, you can feel pressure across your face or like your head is underwater.

We look at 2 major factors that can cause your sinuses to act up:

  1. Your environment, like the trees in your backyard
  2. Your anatomy, like the positioning of bones in your nose
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Conditions

Common symptoms of chronic sinusitis (or rhinosinusitis) may include:

  • Change in voice
  • Facial pain
  • Hoarseness
  • Loss of smell
  • Migraines
  • Nasal obstruction
  • Runny nose
  • Trouble sleeping
  • Vascular headaches

These symptoms can link to:

  • Environmental allergies: These are relatively common and can be a major factor in developing chronic rhinosinusitis.
  • Nasal polyps: Nasal polyps are little inflamed sacs that line the nose or sinuses. We can remove them, but polyps can grow back. Nasal polyps can link to aspirin sensitivity and asthma
  • Reflux disease: Common symptoms of Gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD) or Laryngeal reflux disease (LPR) are difficulty swallowing, hoarseness and changes to your voice.
  • Structural or cartilage abnormalities: People with structural or cartilage abnormalities often struggle with their sinuses because of bone abnormalities blocking where the sinuses drain.  

Other less common conditions that cause chronic sinusitis include:

  • Immune deficiencies
  • Fungal hypersensitivity sinusitis
  • Forms of vasculitis, like Wegener’s Granulomatosis
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Testing

Our teams of allergists and ENT specialists know a thing or two about noses. To better understand yours and the rest of your sinuses, we’ll perform one or a combination of the following diagnostics:

  • Allergy skin testing
  • Immune system testing for immunoglobulin levels and responses to pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines
  • RAST (radioallergosorbent) sinus CT scan
  • Rhinoscopy with laryngoscopy
  • Testing for allergy to unusual environmental allergens
  • Testing for aspirin sensitivity
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Treatments

We don’t want you to suffer from chronic sinusitis any longer. Your treatment plan may include one or a combination of the following treatments:

  • Allergen immunotherapy (subcutaneous immunotherapy is our standard treatment, but we can consider sublingual immunotherapy)
  • Antibiotics paired with other measures
  • Aspirin desensitization
  • Immunoglobulin replacement for immunodeficiency
  • Nasal surgery or functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS)
  • Oral corticosteroid regimens (typically short-term and used to treat bacterial or fungal infections or nasal polyps)
  • Topical nasal corticosteroid regimens and nasal irrigations
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