Treating sinusitis is made with drugs prescribed by the doctor, and some home remedies.

The treatment must kill the bacteria, make facial pain and pressure disappear, clear up the nasal cavities and maintain intact the sinus and nasal tissues.

Treatment must be instituted as soon as possible to help the patient feel better and prevent other complications. The doctor will prescribe an antibiotic drug (oral or inhale drugs) if the sinusitis is caused by a bacterium; a decongestant, analgesics who will reduce the pain and corticosteroids to slow down the inflammation in the nasal cavities.

Some general symptoms of sinus infection are: headaches, fatigue, facial and upper jaw pains, and tenderness of the sinus area, sore throat, cough, colored nasal drainage, bad breath and swollen eye lids.

Sinusitis is difficult to diagnose in children but if your child has repeated sinus infections you can be vigilant to its symptoms in order to begin home treatment when you see that another infection will occur.

Treatment for acute and chronic sinusitis differs. For acute sinusitis, that generally lasts 2-3 weeks, doctors recommend antibiotic treatment for 5 to 7 days. Even if you feel better after a few days, make sure you do not interrupt the treatment until the doctor says so. Antibiotics have side effects and if you are not feeling well after taking them, request your therapist a different antibiotic. You can also use steam inhalations to minimize your nasal congestion.

The chronic sinusitis lasts longer, about 6-8 weeks and it is more difficult to treat.

Antibiotic therapy will be followed for at least 2 weeks and it is possible to use more than one antibiotic drug. Corticosteroids will be also used in order to relieve the inflammation of the nasal passages.

At people who have a weakened immune system (by cancer, HIV) unusual sinus infections may appear. These infections can be caused by fungus and other types of bacteria than the usual ones. In this case doctors recommend antifungal therapy associated with corticosteroids and even surgery.

If a patient has followed the classical antibiotic therapy and there were no signs of improvement the surgical therapy will be recommended because a complication could have occurred: the infection of the facial bones.