Those with symptoms that subside in less than 4 weeks have acute sinusitis. To distinguish between the two conditions, take note of the distinct symptoms. Itchy nose, sneezing, and associated itchy, watery eyes are more common with allergic rhinitis or allergies. Clear nasal drainage often coincides with allergies. Persistent yellow or green nasal discharge in large amounts may be an indicator of sinusitis.
An allergist would be the appropriate doctor to treat both allergic rhinitis and acute or chronic sinusitis. Our team of board-certified allergy and immunology specialists at Allergy Tampa will work with you to determine the underlying cause of your nasal congestion, as well as put you on the path toward recovery by making an accurate diagnosis of your condition.
For more information, or to schedule an appointment with one of our physicians, call — or request an appointment with our online form. All rights reserved. Search this website. Call: Allergic Rhinitis One in five people in the United States suffer from hay fever, also known as allergic rhinitis.
Sinusitis Symptoms of sinusitis can include nasal congestion, discolored nasal drainage, sinus pressure, headache, and fever. Once IgE connects with the mast cells, a number of chemicals are released. One of the chemicals, histamine, opens the blood vessels and causes skin redness and swollen membranes.
When this occurs in the nose, sneezing, drainage, and congestion are the result. Weiss is specially trained in the medical and surgical diagnosis and treatment of sinus, nasal, and allergy in both adults and children. Weiss provides care for a wide range of nasal and sinus disorders including chronic sinusitis, sinus headache, allergic rhinitis, nasal obstruction, turbinate hypertrophy, nasal valve collapse, deviated nasal septum, nasal polyps, and eustachian tube dysfunction. Weiss has a particular interest in sinus disease and is a skilled sinonasal surgeon offering state of the art diagnostic testing and minimally invasive endoscopic 3D image guided office surgical treatment.
Please call our office at to schedule an appointment. Request An Appointment. Another great antihistamine is Zyrtec. So if the patient has the itchiness with the runny, drippy nose, what we call clear rhinorrhea, or clear, drippy nose, the Zyrtec is actually quite more drying than let's say the Claritin. So we would push the patient more towards the Zyrtec, which is a more drying medication. One thing to consider is even if the second generations make you drowsy or feel a little fatigued, you can also take them at night which is an option.
Miller: So sleep a little better and maybe get a little bit better coverage for the allergic symptoms. A third option that's more recent is a topical spray antihistamine. This is not taken by the mouth and you can spray it in the nose. This type of antihistamine, I've never seen it cause drowsiness or fatigue in patients, and you can use it on contact.
So if you know you're going outside you can quick spray it in your nose to reduce the antihistamine response that you have for your allergies. Miller: So Jeremiah, does that require a prescription or is that available over the counter? Alt: That one is still a prescription medication. So you really need to get that from you allergist or your ENT, or your primary care doctor. Miller: Now, there's another class of medication used to treat allergic rhinitis as well, and that would be the nasal steroids.
So the nasal steroids actually have great evidence to be used both for allergic rhinitis and for many of the diseases that we talked about in some of the other podcasts, including chronic rhinosinusitis or reoccurring acute rhinosinusitis, where there's just an overall inflammation inside the sinonasal cavity.
This just calms the inside of the nose down. It's a topical steroid. It's sprayed within the nose, usually dosed once or twice a day. What I like to think of it, it addresses the root of the problem. Alt: The inflammation, correct. So it really reduces the overall amount of goblet cells in the nose, the inflammatory, or those mediators in the nose and the immune system that are really creating the immune system to start with to create this inflammation.
Miller: Now, do you think that a patient with allergic rhinitis could also take the antihistamine orally, antihistamine nasal spray, and a topical steroid nasal spray, or should they use them separately? What's your thought on that? Alt: It really depends on the patient's response and the overall diagnosis that you've come up with your doctor and your treatment plan. However, commonly we like to use both and we feel like patients get a good response by both blocking with an antihistamine and using a topical nasal steroid like Flonase or Nasonex.
Miller: It's possible that they could start their own treatment and then if things weren't going well they could end up seeing their physician. Alt: There is a new medication, Dymista, that has actually combined the two together. So you can get it in a single spray, which patients are noting that they've really enjoyed using just one medication instead of two separate. Miller: Now, let's say they have the common cold or sinusitis.
Do the same medications work? Alt: Yes. In general, though, we don't typically use antihistamines for chronic sinusitis unless they have a comorbidity or that's one other disease process that they also have on top of the chronic sinusitis that we want to help control symptomology.
So if they have allergies and we want to help control some of that drippy nose, postnasal drip symptoms, we can add on an antihistamine. But, yeah, the steroids are great, as we talked about.
It's really disease of inflammation, so that topical nasal steroid is ideal for helping.
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