Headache: Sinusitis

Patients having chronic nasal problems along with sinusitis often complains of headache.
They most of the time describe the headache as throbbing pain in the cheek bones, over nasal bridge and over the forehead. Which sometimes exacerbates after sudden change in position or straining.
These headaches can be confused with the migraine and hence complete examination and determining the cause of headache is very necessary.
Now what exactly leads to sinus headache. It is the sinus infection or the nasal infection or the allergy leading to congestion in the nose and the draining pathways of the sinuses causing accumulation of the fluid. This fluid in turn causes pressure and inflammation of sinuses, leading to headache.

Sometimes this fluid can get secondarily infected and then patient may experience fever, body pain etc.
Treatment for this headache is just relieve the congestion of nose and form a patent channel for the sinus fluid to drain.
This will include medications like antibiotics, antihistamines, decongestant, nasal local decongestants. Steroid sprays etc. The treatment is tailor made according to the symptoms.
Home remedies include inhaling the steam.
The bottom line is to differentiate the headache cause complete examination and sometimes investigations like ctscan or x-rays are also required and hence we should get ourselves completely evaluated and then start the medication.