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Howard Levine, M.D.
Mt. Sinai Nasal-Sinus Center, Cleveland, OH
Trouble with sinusitis? Wonder why your nose is blocked? Annoyed by headaches, too? Around the world, physicians continue to increase their understanding of sinusitis.
In spite of the many new methods of diagnosing and managing true sinusitis, the most important thing is being certain you actually have obtained the correct diagnosis!
Sinusitis may give you some of the same symptoms as a cold or allergy.
In order to get to the true source of the problem, several things might be needed:
- Physician asks you many questions to learn your history;
- In office nasal exam is performed with a small nasal telescope;
- Computed tomographic (CT) scan of the nose and sinus is taken.
Sinusitis can best be defined by determining the duration and types of symptoms. Because sinus symptoms overlap with allergy and cold symptoms, the following symptom combinations help lead one to to the correct diagnosis.
Symptoms are divided into two categories:
- Very important
- Less important
Very Important symptoms include the following:
- Facial pain or pressure
- Facial congestion or fullness
- Nasal obstruction
- Thick & discolored drainage
- Change in taste or smell
Less important symptoms include the following:
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Bad breath
- Fever
- Tooth pain
- Cough
- Ear pressure
For an individual to have any type of sinusitis, one of the following combinations is needed:
- At least two of the very important symptoms or
- One very important symptom and two less important symptoms
In order to be certain of what is causing your sinus and breathing discomfort, check with a nasal-sinus specialist.
If your doctor is not asking you the right questions, you may not be getting the right kind of help.
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