Sinus Headache Remedies

There are several medical procedures and proven sinus infection home remedies which are effective sinus headache remedies.

For anyone who has experienced a sinus headache before, it is certainly not a pleasant thing. The pain can dull your mind; you cannot function normally and your productivity at the workplace suffers. So, many chronic sinus infection sufferers are searching for effective sinus headache remedies.

Causes of Sinus Headache

The main cause of sinus headache is attributed to a sinus infection. With a sinus infection, the mucosa, the membrane-like lining that covers the nasal passages and the sinuses, becomes inflamed. This affects the quality of the mucus produced by the sinuses.

Normally, the mucus produced by the sinuses is thin, colorless and has a slippery feel. But when there is inflammation, thick, glue-like sinus infection mucus starts forming. In this form, the mucus has difficulty draining from the ostium, which is an orifice where mucus is pushed out of the sinus cavity by small hair-like protusions called Cilia.

This congestion of trapped, abnormally thick mucus results in pressure build-up. The pressure is commonly referred to sinus pressure and is the chief cause of sinus headache. In other words, unless the sinus infection is treated effectively, the sinus headache would remain.

Sinus Infection Treatment

If you are suffering from a mild sinus infection, chances are that the sinus headache will disappear on its own when the body heals itself naturally. For acute sinus infection, the symptoms last for as long as two weeks and short term sinus headache remedies would include taking pain-killing drugs such as acetaminophen or Ibuprofen.

In the case of an acute sinus infection, doctors would usually prescribe a course of antibiotics for about 10 days to get rid of the bacterial infection. Sometimes, two courses of antibiotics may be prescribed when the bacteria have some resistance to one type of antibiotics. Such antibiotic resistant bugs are becoming more common today.

Effective sinus headache remedies are therefore tied to an effective sinus infection treatment regime. This is especially so when there is an acute sinus infection. However, there are many chronic sinus infection sufferers who get sinus headaches on a daily basis.

Antibiotics do not work because there is no bacterial infection. The mucosa of such people is constantly inflamed and as a result, the thick-glue like mucus is being continually produced and drainage of such mucus is impaired leading to sinus pressure built up within the sinuses.

In such cases, doctors would usually prescribe steroid nasal sprays to reduce the inflammation. Unfortunately, this does not always work and the patient continues to suffer sinus headache.

Medical Procedures - A Last Resort

In cases of fungal sinus infection, there is no other alternative except by way of going through Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. This is an invasive surgery whereby inflamed sinus tissues are removed together with the fungi that have grown into the infected tissues.

Some people are more prone to sinus infection because of the anatomy of their nose structure. They have exceptionally narrow nasal passages and when allergies strike, there is hardly any space for air to be breathed in through the nose to ventilate the sinuses. Sinus headache then results.

Balloon Sinuplasty procedure is most suited for people falling into this category

Evidently, Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery and Balloon Sinuplasty would serve as more permanent sinus headache remedies.

Unless, the episodes of sinus headaches are frequent and difficult to bear, many people would probably not go for them because of the prohibitive costs involved with such surgeries.

Home Remedy for Sinus Headache

The following are proven methods to reduce sinus pressure:

1. Steam inhalation can help thin subsequently drain the mucus from the sinuses.

2. Nasal irrigation using a syringe or a neti pot.

For more detailed information of these procedures, readers are advised to visit: Sinus Infection Home Remedies