You may notice that your head is rumbling, as if it were under pressure in various areas such as between the eyebrows, the lower area of the eyes or on the upper sides of the jaw. These places consist of a cavity called paranasal sinuses and perhaps if you feel like this you are suffering from a common ailment that consists of inflammation of these sinuses.
Today, in this FastlyHealarticle we are going to know the main symptoms of inflamed sinuses , we will tell you what the paranasal sinuses are and how we can avoid their inflammation or how to treat it.
Table of Contents
What are paranasal sinuses
The paranasal sinuses are the bony cavities located in our facial area, specifically they are part of the bones that make up the nose. There are four groups of paranasal sinuses :
- The frontals, which is the cavity located between the eyebrows
- The jaws, placed on the sides of the nose, below the eyes.
- The ethmoid sinuses which are small hollows located between the upper part of the nose and the eye area
- The sphenoid sinus that is located in the back of the nose.
All these cavities have the function of reducing the weight of our facial and cranial bones, lightening our physiognomy, but giving it hardness and stability at the same time. They serve to resonate and produce the voice and are filled with air that helps cushion the blows.
These sinuses are covered by mucous cellular tissue , that is, by cell membranes that generate mucus to protect our body from external agents that can attack us, and which are subsequently eliminated through the mucus through small holes that communicate with the fossae. nasal and that expel the polluting elements. This membrane can easily become inflamed due to obstruction of the mucus removal cavities. When this happens, mucus is generated, it can turn into an infection or the existence of an agent that tears the wall and inflames it. When we are in this situation we speak of sinusitis , or inflamed and infected sinuses.
Symptoms of swollen sinuses
Having inflamed sinuses is usually a symptom of other later and more serious illnesses. Normally, it can indicate that we suffer from any of the following ailments: respiratory allergy, cold, cold or flu, sporadic sinusitis or chronic sinusitis. Faced with any of these diseases, the symptoms that indicate that we have the most common inflamed sinuses are the same, although they do not have to occur all at once. Here are the main symptoms of inflamed sinuses :
- Eye pressure : because the cavities around the eyes swell, it is normal to notice some eye pressure, as if our eyes were squeezing outward.
- Pain in the face : it is a pain that is present without movement but that worsens when making facial movements, it is due to the fact that the inflammation causes some pressure towards our own bone area and bounces to the skin and we notice the pain.
- Headache and headaches : it is a continuous and stabbing pain, it feels like a cranial pressure that does not decrease, but increases when we put the head down.
- Nasal mucus: if our mucus increases, it is a sign that our body is working against an external or internal attack such as inflammation. Note that our nose does not stop drawing liquid, like a constant drop of water that is falling and we have to clean.
- Sensation of mucus but that cannot be eliminated: it is one of the most common sensations. When our sinuses are inflamed due to an obstruction of the passages of elimination of mucus, we have the sensation of having mucus, because they are actually present in those cavities, but we cannot eliminate them.
- Fever : when it becomes inflamed, it can become infected and our body in the face of infections or external elements acts by generating fever as a symptom to eliminate the cause that does not work in our body. So if we have episodes of fever over 38ºC we may be facing an inflammation of the paranasal sinuses caused by infection.
- Stinky breath : even if we perform oral hygiene. It is because the cavities have a mucus itself that is not eliminated and becomes infected, changing the smell of the air that enters our body when we breathe and giving it a certain stench.
- Cough : having a cough because the mucus passes into the respiratory tract and our body must eliminate it and tries to do so by coughing.
- Not noticing tastes and smells : since we have the inflamed area and the functions of the nose lose part of their usefulness since they are obstructed. This implies that when we eat we do not notice the tastes or that we do not have sensitivity to smells.
To be suffering from inflamed breasts, you do not need to have or suffer all these symptoms, but if you feel that you identify with several of them, you may already be living this situation. In that case, we advise you to visit your doctor.
Prevention and treatment of inflamed sinuses
To prevent our sinuses from becoming inflamed, we can carry out certain habits in our day-to-day life that improve our health and make it easier for this ailment not to appear:
- Drink 1.5 liters of water daily , as they help to keep the body clean and stable and to eliminate mucus.
- Maintain proper personal and home hygiene . Washing your hands often, taking a daily shower and keeping the house clean of dust or dirt helps keep external agents that attack us away from our body and our home.
- Perform nasal hygiene and drain the paranasal sinuses : by using steams of boiling water with eucalyptus, with nasal cleansing with water and salt or with physiological saline.
- Do not smoke : it allows us to have clean and healthy respiratory cavities.
- Use a humidifier at home: which ensures that the air humidity is ideal and does not damage our mucous tissues due to the dryness of the air.
- Take spicy foods : since they eliminate bacteria from the body and unclog the pressure in the nasal area.
When to go to the doctor for swollen sinuses
Visit the doctor: in the case of suffering from this ailment in a common and habitual way, you should visit your doctor and he will recommend what your most appropriate treatment may be, which can be from a change in diet, taking more fluids, the proposal to carry out more exercise, the ingestion of antiallergic drugs or other medications or, in the most difficult cases, the surgical operation. In the following article we will talk about natural remedies for sinusitis .
We hope that this article by FastlyHealon the symptoms of inflamed paranasal sinuses will be useful for you to recognize such ailment and to act accordingly to your situation, visiting your doctor or performing preventive cures.
This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.
If you want to read more articles similar to Symptoms of swollen sinuses , we recommend that you enter our Ear, Nose and Throat category .
I am a Surgeon with a diploma in comprehensive ultrasound and surgical care residency, an area I am specializing in. During the exercise of my profession, I have realized the need for patients to know the diseases they suffer, and I can tell you that a large part of their complications is due to a lack of information. Being a health web writer allows me to transmit my experience, without borders, to all those readers eager for knowledge, educate them in the prevention of diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle.