Signs of Sinus Infection

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Doctor David Hill, and today we're going to be talking about signs of a sinus infection. The sinuses are cavities within the skull, that normal hold air. Adults have one set here, right behind these bones, one set right behind these bones, and two sets that are deeper inside the head. Young children haven't developed all of their sinuses yet, necessarily, especially these ones up here called the frontal sinuses, although usually by eight age or ten those sinuses have come into being. Now, any time you get a cold, you're likely to have a viral infection of the sinuses. That's something we really have any medicine to fix, but the good news is it goes away on its own. That viral rhinosinusitus, that's our fancy word for a cold, usually lasts from seven to ten days. Same in adults as in children. But adults and children differ in terms of how you determine there's a bacterial infection. That's important, because bacterial infections can be more dangerous. And sometimes we have more we can do about them. A good cue for adults and children is a fever that's going on more than three days. When you get a viral cold, the fever is expected to last three days, but if you get up to four days, or five days, especially if the fever is getting above one o two, the chances that you have a bacterial infection of the sinuses go way up. Another clue is a cold that just seems to be lasting too long. We expect a viral rhinosinusitus to last anywhere from seven to ten days. If it's going on eleven, twelve, fourteen days, you're starting to think there may also be a bacterial infection at this point. Similarly, if a cold goes on for five or seven days then suddenly gets much worse, chances are good that you now have a bacterial sinusitis. One sign that's different in adults and children is the sign of pain. Adults may get headaches, especially here, or here, or here, or here, often just on one side, especially if there's tenderness or swelling, we often suspect that there's a bacterial infection that needs to be treated. Children, because their sinuses are not as developed as adults, don't tend to get that headache and pain. And when a child gets a headache, even if it is in that area, you need to think about other causes sinusitis. I'm Doctor David Hill, talking about ways to know you have bacterial rhinosinusitus."