How to Control Your Recurrent Sinusitis

In your head — around your forehead, nose, and eyes, you have four pairs of spaces (cavities) that are connected by narrow passageways. These eight cavities are referred to as your sinuses. Normally, they’re full of air and your sinuses produce mucus to drain germs, bacteria, and allergens through your nose. 

If you get a cold or suffer from seasonal allergies, the tissues inside your sinuses can get irritated and inflamed, causing them to swell and your sinuses to fill up with fluid. This is referred to as sinusitis or a sinus infection, and it can cause facial pain, a stuffy nose, and postnasal drip. 

For the most part, sinusitis can clear up on its own after a few weeks. However, in some cases, the sinus infection keeps returning repeatedly. This is known as recurrent sinusitis.

Because continual sinus infections can be bothersome and even start to wear on your quality of life, allergist Chad W. Mayer, DO, FAAAAI, FAAP, and the rest of our team at the Allergy and Asthma Institute of Southeast Michigan in Farmington Hills, Michigan, want to explore why recurrent sinusitis typically happens in the first place and what to do about it. 

Understanding recurrent sinusitis

There are four different kinds of sinusitis: acute, subacute, chronic, and recurrent. Each one is diagnosed based on how long you’ve experienced symptoms. Acute sinusitis lasts about four weeks, subacute lasts up to 12 weeks, and chronic lasts longer than 12 weeks. Recurrent sinusitis is in a category on its own. 

When you have recurrent sinusitis, you have acute sinusitis multiple times in a single year, typically more than four times. In between bouts of acute sinusitis, you don’t have any symptoms.

Many different things can cause sinusitis to continually come back. You may have a deviated septum or nasal polyps or even a weakened immune system that puts you at a higher risk for infection. In many cases, seasonal allergies or environmental irritants that repeatedly irritate your nose are at fault for recurrent sinusitis. 

If you’ve had a case of sinusitis in the past that was caused by a bacterial infection, it can put you at greater risk for repeated cases of sinusitis. 

How we can help with recurrent sinusitis

To properly treat recurrent sinusitis, our team will need to target what’s causing these repeated infections. 

If allergies seem to be the culprit, diagnosing and treating the allergies should help bring down the frequency of sinusitis episodes. Medications and avoidance of things that trigger your allergies (allergens) can be very helpful for managing recurrent sinusitis caused by allergies. 

Lingering bacteria could be another reason for repeated cases of sinusitis. If so, we can prescribe antibiotics to clear up the bacterial infection. 

Surgery is a last resort for treating recurrent sinusitis, but it may be necessary if a deviated septum or another nasal abnormality is bringing on the continual infections. 

Start treating your recurrent sinusitis today

If you suspect that you have recurrent sinusitis, don’t put off treatment. Our team at the Allergy and Asthma Institute of Southeast Michigan can track down the cause of your continual sinus infections and get you the relief you need. 

To schedule an appointment for an expert diagnosis and treatment, call our office today.