An estimated 35 million Americans are plagued with sinusitis every year. The December issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource offers a guide to the symptoms and treatments for this common and irritating disease.
Sinuses are hollow air spaces in the skull and bones of the face.
They lie above and along the nose, around the eyes and across the cheekbones. All of these spaces can become clogged by mucus from the nose, so anything that causes your nose to swell or get congested can affect your sinuses the same way. More than two-thirds of sinusitis cases are acute, which means they are only temporary and should be cured by a course of antibiotics. The remaining one-third of cases are chronic. The symptoms never seem to go away, even with medical treatment.