If the back of your head hurts with sinusitis: what does it mean and what to do?

Differences between headaches due to sinusitis and migraines

Their symptoms are very difficult to distinguish. Both with sinusitis and with neurological disease, the pain is characterized as throbbing. When turning or tilting the head, the painful sensation becomes stronger.

The symptoms of these diseases are similar, but they also have differences. Migraine sufferers experience headaches that are aggravated by loud noises. It may be accompanied by vomiting or nausea.

Pain in the head with sinusitis intensifies when turning and tilting the head. However, only a doctor who is well acquainted with the symptoms of these diseases can professionally distinguish the nature of the painful sensations.

Features of headaches with sinusitis:

How to get rid of pain?

To remove pain, it is necessary to eliminate the source that provokes this pain - the accumulation of pus and mucus in the sinuses. As soon as it becomes clear that the disease has moved from the category of a common runny nose to a more serious stage, you should immediately consult a doctor. He will conduct an examination and prescribe medications to quickly relieve symptoms, and a course of physiotherapy. In extremely severe cases, a puncture is made to remove the contents of the sinuses.

You should not prescribe medicine on your own or try to solve the problem using “grandmother’s” methods. Sinusitis is a serious disease that is fraught with dangerous consequences for the body.

Maxillary sinusitis: treatment

Treatment of maxillary sinusitis begins with establishing the cause of its occurrence, and this is the most important stage in treatment. You probably already realized that if sinusitis is associated with teeth (odontogenic origin), the treatment should be completely different than if the cause was an infection in the nasal cavity (rhinogenic origin). Plus, you should know that there are also combined causes that aggravate each other.

With the causes of rhinogenic origin, everything is basically clear here - these are acute and chronic inflammatory processes in the nasal passages, occurring with acute runny nose and/or nasal congestion, etc. But the dental causes of maxillary sinusitis are more interesting. Firstly, there are poorly filled root canals in the area of ​​5-6-7 teeth and foci of inflammation at the apexes of the roots of these teeth. Secondly, the cause of sinusitis can be filling material that is abundantly removed beyond the apexes of the roots (when filling root canals).

Thirdly, sinusitis can occur as a result of traumatic removal of 5-6-7-8 teeth. For example, the doctor may push a fragment of tooth or bone tissue into the sinus. Or he can simply make a perforation (a hole through the sinus) with an instrument. According to the rules, after this the doctor must perform gum surgery to tightly sutured the extraction site, but in fact, 95% of dental surgeons simply do not do this. As a result, a fistula is formed between the oral cavity and the sinus, and infection from the oral cavity penetrates into the sinus, causing inflammation in it. Next we will talk about how to treat sinusitis.

Treatment methods for sinusitis

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy in combination with drug treatment allows you to quickly and painlessly get rid of an unpleasant illness.

1. UHF.
   Effectively relieves pain, restores sinus tissue, and also helps improve local immunity. It consists in the effect of an electromagnetic field on the body. This procedure has several contraindications:

• cardiovascular diseases;
• presence of tumors;
• low pressure.
• The procedure is recommended for the treatment of young children and pregnant women. On average, the course of treatment is 12-15 days.

Puncture

Treatment of an advanced form of purulent sinusitis is carried out using a puncture. The procedure consists of piercing the wall of the sinus with a special needle in order to remove purulent contents from the sinus and also introduce medications into it.

Many patients tolerate the procedure easily. Qualified doctors are fluent in it, so they carry it out quickly and painlessly. Moreover, the effect is noticeable immediately: pain and heaviness go away, and breathing also improves.

The procedure is carried out as follows:

1. Anesthesia
   of the nasal mucosa.
2. Piercing the sinus wall
   with a special needle.
3. Removing fluid
   with a syringe, as well as rinsing with medications

The puncture is performed in rare cases. For this procedure, the patient must have the following symptoms:

• serious condition (high fever and severe weakness);
• unbearable headache, pulsation in the maxillary sinus area.

A puncture is also prescribed in cases where the infection needs to be cured as soon as possible. For example, during pregnancy.

Drug treatment

When prescribing medications, the ENT doctor takes into account the severity of the disease, as well as the causative agent that caused it.

For sinusitis, medications for various purposes are prescribed to affect a specific symptom of the disease:

1. Antibacterial drugs.
   Their main task is to destroy the infection, as well as relieve inflammation.
2. Corticosteroid drugs.
   They have an anti-inflammatory effect.
3. Analgesics
   . These medications relieve headaches.
4. Vasoconstrictor drugs
   . Relieves swelling and a feeling of “fullness” in the nose.
5. Preparations for rinsing the nose.

Important

! Only a doctor should prescribe and prescribe medications for sinusitis. After all, most medications have many contraindications.

When complications develop, injectable antibiotics are used.

In the initial stages of the disease, when the nasal cavity is congested, special nasal drops are used that relieve swelling and ensure free breathing - vasoconstrictor drugs.

Medicines based on sea water not only wash, moisturize and cleanse the mucous membranes of crusts, but also prevent the appearance of mucus and pus. Such drugs include Sialor Aqua.

Chronic sinusitis: symptoms

Acute maxillary sinusitis in adults, in the absence or improper treatment, can very quickly become chronic. If you have developed chronic sinusitis, the symptoms in adults depend on the form of chronic inflammation, which can be either catarrhal, or purulent, or polyposis, or purulent-polyposis.

• Catarrhal form - this form is usually practically asymptomatic, but with periodic, not pronounced exacerbation of the inflammatory process.
  During exacerbations, patients may complain of a feeling of heaviness in a certain half of the face (due to the inflammatory process), periodic disruption of nasal breathing, as well as some malaise at the end of the day. During an instrumental examination of the nasal passages, the ENT doctor can detect swelling and cyanosis of their mucous membrane. X-rays for this form of sinusitis usually do not give results at all, but a CT scan may show thickening of certain areas of the mucous membrane in the sinus (in areas of inflammation). You can see the catarrhal form of sinusitis in the CT image in Fig. 9 - in the sinus (on the left in the image) you can see a thickening of the mucous membrane in the area of ​​the bottom of the sinus, as well as the wall adjacent to the nasal passages.

• Purulent and polypous forms - the diagnosis of chronic sinusitis is made based on symptoms and X-ray or CT data, as well as endoscopic sinusoscopy. In the purulent form, the sinus will be partially filled with purulent exudate, and in the polypous form, there will be growths of polyps on the surface of the mucous membrane (a combined purulent-polypous form of sinusitis may also occur). Polyps in the maxillary sinus are no different from polyps that often grow in the nasal passages, and they look the same (Fig. 12).

  

  Patients with purulent and polypous forms of chronic sinusitis usually present the following complaints:

  → fatigue, → putrid odor, → periodic discharge of pus from the corresponding half of the nose, → temperature 37.5 – 37.8.

Chronic sinusitis in the acute phase -

If the source of inflammation of the sinus mucosa has not been eliminated, or improper treatment or self-medication has been carried out, the acute inflammatory process becomes chronic, which in turn is characterized by a wave-like course. The latter means that periods of remission will periodically be replaced by exacerbations (a wave-like course of inflammation). Exacerbations of chronic sinusitis can occur for various reasons, for example, against the background of hypothermia or decreased immunity, against the background of acute respiratory viral infections, exacerbation of chronic inflammation in the area of ​​the apexes of the roots of 5-6-7 teeth, etc.

Chronic sinusitis in the acute phase is characterized by symptoms similar to acute maxillary sinusitis, which we described above. Very often, the development of chronic sinusitis is a complication of incorrect actions by the doctor, or when the patient is addicted to self-medication. Below I will demonstrate an example from my own clinical practice.

Complications

Many patients do not seek medical help for sinusitis in a timely manner. Unfortunately, the complications of this disease are serious. For example, with purulent sinusitis, complications are possible, including those affecting the brain.

What might patients encounter?

1. Orbital complications.
   There is a sharp increase in temperature and severe pain.
2. Intracranial complications.
3. Mucocele
   . A cyst-like formation forms inside the sinus, which prevents the movement of air and mucus.
4. Pneumocele
   . This is a formation similar in size to a tumor.

To prevent complications from occurring, you need to contact an ENT doctor in time and not self-medicate!

Types of sinusitis

There are several types of sinusitis:

• sinusitis;
• frontal sinusitis;
• ethmoiditis;
• sphenoiditis, but the latter type of sinusitis is extremely rare and almost always together with ethmoiditis.

1 Examination of the nasal cavity in MedicCity

2 Examination of the nasal cavity in MedicCity

3 ENT unit Atmos S 31

Prevention and precautions

To always feel in good shape and not encounter this unpleasant disease, you must follow several recommendations from doctors:

1. In winter, be sure to wear a hat.
2. Do exercises every morning.
3. Ventilate the apartment at any time of the year.
4. For prevention, rinse your nose with preparations based on sea water.

The danger of sinusitis is that its symptoms are very similar to those of a common runny nose. If proper measures are not taken, the disease develops into chronic sinusitis. That is why it is important not to self-medicate, but to immediately consult a doctor.