Reduced sense of smell, postnasal drip, and painful sinus headaches are just a few of the symptoms of acute and chronic sinusitis. When it’s acute sinusitis, at least these symptoms are only temporary. But, when you deal with these issues several months out of the year, sinusitis can affect your life professionally and personally.
Medications can help reduce your symptoms temporarily, but drugs aren’t a long-term solution. Here at Houston Sinus Surgery in Houston, our expert sinus surgeon, Cecil Yeung, MD, can help you put an end to sinusitis once and for all with balloon sinuplasty.
Sinusitis is a sinus infection that occurs as a result of exposure to bacteria, mold, and other allergens. It leads to inflamed tissue in your sinus cavities between your eyes and behind your nose, cheeks, and forehead.
Anyone can get sinusitis, but it’s more common in people who have small sinuses, a deviated septum, or nasal polyps. If you have an existing immune condition, you may also be prone to chronic sinusitis, since you may get infections more easily.
Sinusitis is typically treated with antibiotics to get rid of the infection as well as antihistamines to reduce inflammation in the sinus cavities. However, chronic sinusitis symptoms can become resistant to these types of treatments, which can leave you with pain, pressure, sinus headaches, and difficulty breathing.
If you’ve exhausted more conservative methods, and you no longer get relief from sinus medications, you may be an ideal candidate for balloon sinuplasty.
Balloon sinuplasty is a minimally invasive procedure in which Dr. Yeung inserts a small catheter with a tiny balloon into your nose. He inflates the balloon slowly to expand your sinus passages. While the balloon is inflated, Dr. Yeung flushes out pus buildup and mucus with a saline solution.
The combination of inflating the sinuses ― thus widening them ― and removing the mucus and pus buildup leaves your sinus passages wider than they were and allows the bones to gently restructure themselves around the newly opened sinuses. Once your sinus cavities are opened up, they are free to drain more easily. After your sinuses are opened and cleared, Dr. Yeung deflates the balloon and removes it and the catheter.
There are no incisions during a balloon sinuplasty, and recovery is relatively simple. You can return to your normal daily activities after a couple days and resume physical exercise after about a week. Swelling and congestion typically clear up within a week after balloon sinuplasty.
Balloon sinuplasty offers several benefits for people suffering from chronic sinusitis, including:
Balloon sinuplasty is a safe, FDA-approved procedure for long-term relief from chronic sinusitis. In fact, studies indicate that the results often last two years or longer and offer significant improvement of common sinusitis symptoms. That means you can breathe more freely without dependence on medications or nasal sprays. And you can experience fewer sinus headaches and less sinus pressure.
If you’re tired of feeling sick all the time, needing to blow your nose, or struggling to breathe during the day or night, a balloon sinuplasty may be just what you need. To learn more, book an appointment online or over the phone with Houston Sinus Surgery today.
