All About Chronic Sinus Headaches: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Solutions

The pressure around your nose and eyes is building up again. Along with the pressure, you keep getting congested. Are you getting chronic sinus headaches? 

Dr. Nilesh Patel, board-certified otolaryngologist, treats many patients with chronic sinusitis, which normally presents with a sinus headache. Sometimes nasal sprays work to clear minor infections, but if you develop a chronic problem, you’re likely going to need antibiotics. If your sinusitis continues to reoccur, antibiotics may not be as effective in controlling your condition. Dr. Patel can perform minimally invasive procedures to help clear your sinuses.

What are the symptoms of a sinus headache?

If you have a sinus headache, you have an infection. One of the hallmarks of a sinus headache is a feeling of pressure around your nose, eyes, and/or forehead along with an ache; the pain can even spread to your cheeks. 

You’re congested and it may be hard to breathe. Your nasal area and cheeks may appear swollen and your ears may feel full. Because sinus headaches are a symptom of an infection, you may have a fever along with colored mucus when you blow your nose. 

Nasal congestion along with pressure around the nasal area is a hallmark of a sinus headache. If you don’t have any congestion and you don’t have a fever, you likely have a tension headache or a migraine.

What is causing my chronic sinus headaches?

Your nasal passages are a warm, moist area that gives germs a chance to grow. The common cold or allergies can cause too much mucus to build up in your nasal passages and sinuses. Then the sinuses swell. Now you have an infection. 

You may also develop chronic sinusitis if you have nasal polyps or a deviated septum. Both polyps and a deviated septum can prevent mucus from draining out of your nose, leading to infection.

What are effective treatments for chronic sinus headaches?

You may have tried over-the-counter decongestants, but you can only take them for a few days. That hasn’t helped your chronic problem. Saline sprays or antihistamines may help a little, but they haven’t solved the problem for you. 

You may need allergy testing. If your problem is the result of allergies, you may need allergy shots to help calm your chronic symptoms. 

If your sinus headaches are a result of nasal polyps, which are noncancerous growths on the lining of your nasal passages, Dr. Patel can prescribe medication that may shrink them. If medication doesn’t work, Dr. Patel removes them surgically. 

Dr. Patel may recommend a balloon sinuplasty that opens your sinuses so mucus drains properly instead of remaining in the passages and causing an infection. No incisions are required during the procedure, so any risk of infection is low and recovery is fast. 

If your problem is structural — in that the bones along your nasal passages grow too large — Dr. Patel can perform a turbinate reduction, removing mucus membrane and/or excess bone that is blocking your airway and preventing mucus from draining normally.  

Dr. Patel examines your nasal passages, performs necessary tests, and prescribes individualized treatment that is going to be effective for you to resolve your sinus headaches. Call the office of Nilesh Patel, MD in Midtown, New York City or request an appointment through our online portal today. Dr. Patel gets to the root of your sinus headaches and administers treatments that work for you.