Sinusitis - what to do when they keep bothering you

It is said that a runny nose, treated or untreated, lasts 14 days. But what if the feeling of a blocked nose persists longer than that? On top of that, you still have a headache, and the general wrecking doesn't go away. You don't even know that your body is fighting acute inflammation. If you don't get the right treatment in time, sinusitis can take on a much more severe chronic form.

Can chronic sinusitis be effectively treated when medications don't work? You should certainly try sinus therapy, which will be performed by a physiotherapist who specializes in it.

Let's start at the beginning - what are sinuses?

If you are asking such a question? Then you certainly did not have sick sinuses. Sinuses are cavities located within the skull, specifically in the facial bones of the skull. They are filled with air, lined with a thin mucous membrane and have a connection to the nasal cavity. The sinuses are divided into maxillary, frontal, wedge, lacrimal and sieve cells. The sinuses perform very important tasks. Among other things, they are responsible for protecting the brain and regulating temperature in the skull, but also for receiving olfactory stimuli and creating speech intonation.

How does sinusitis develop ?

Sinus mucosa - like the nasal mucosa, has a self-cleaning mucociliary mechanism. It produces large amounts of mucous secretion, which moistens the epithelium and, moving with the help of cilia movement towards the nose and throat, captures impurities and microorganisms. When the respiratory tract becomes infected, the nasal mucosa swells and clogs the sinus mouth. The retained secretion promotes the growth of bacteria that cause inflammation. At the same time, it presses on the walls of the sinuses and causes annoying pain. A similar situation occurs with allergic rhinitis or a crooked nasal septum. This is the simplest way to describe the mechanism of sinusitis.

Sinus therapy - worth a try

How to treat the sinuses?

If the inflammation is caused by bacteria, an ENT doctor will decide on antibiotic therapy. This fact is obvious to most of us and in principle could end the topic of sinus treatment. Yet not quite. Rarely do we talk about sinus therapy performed with manual techniques targeting the key structures of proper sinus drainage. Since this sounds a bit puzzling, an explanation will be provided by Magda Rybak, M.D., a physiotherapist and massage technician.

What does sinus therapy consist of ?

For sinus therapy, we invite people who have problems with the feeling of a blocked nose, suffer from recurrent sinusitis, headaches that worsen when bending over, colds.

The manual technique for sinus treatment begins with relaxing the cervical spine by gently massaging the occipital area, as well as the spinous processes, but also using trigger points on the suboccipital muscles.

This is followed by manual facial drainage. This is the most pleasant part of the whole therapy, involving circular movements that push lymph towards the subclavian lymph nodes.

It is followed by facial gradation, a technique taken from the pino and clavitherapy methods, which involves inducing a relatively large number of stimuli in a fairly short period of time, this in turn causes blood vessels to contract and stimulates local congestion.

Finally, manual mobilization of the nasal cavity, that is, the entrance towards the maxillary sinuses, is performed. This is done to create as much breathing space as possible to ensure the best possible circulation of air, the lack of which is an ally of persistent inflammation.

What else helps with sinuses?

In addition, complementary manual sinus therapy treatments may be :

• IR irradiation, or colloquially known as Sollux, which gives a pleasant warmth and relaxation that will help get rid of secretions
• High-energy laser in the frontal as well as maxillary sinus area, which has a drying effect
• low-energy laser , which also has a drying effect from the inside

A contraindication to the treatments is fever. We also do not perform therapy on pregnant women.

Magda Rybak, MA - experienced physiotherapist, massage technician. At CM Luxmed she provides sinus therapy, trigger point therapy, pinotherapy, deep tissue massage, among others.

To sign up for treatment you will need a proper referral. These can be issued by a physiotherapy specialist or doctor.

You can sign up online for a consultation with a physiotherapist .