Sinus Surgery Called Ballooon Sinuplasty

Here is an interesting read taken from an article written by Dr. Nancy Butler. The article is reproduced below for easy reading:

[Question: I have been getting several sinus infections a year for about the past five years, and each one seems to last forever! Is there something that can be done about this?

Answer: Sinus infection (sinusitis) is one of the most common chronic health problems in the United States, affecting millions of people each year.

It causes headaches, congestion, fatigue and other symptoms that impact a person's physical, functional and emotional quality of life.

In the past, sinusitis patients were limited to two treatment options — medical therapy, such as antibiotics or topical nasal steroids, or conventional sinus surgery that required bone and tissue removal to open up a blocked sinus passageway.

Today, a safe, minimally invasive surgery is available to sinus sufferers — balloon sinus surgery.

The in-office surgery involves a small, flexible balloon catheter that is threaded through the nostril into the area of blockage. As the balloon is inflated, it gently opens the sinus passageway, restoring normal sinus drainage and function.

Many patients who have undergone this surgery experienced less bleeding and reduced post-procedure discomfort.

This is an excellent procedure for those unable to take time off from work, or those patients who are not good candidates for general anesthesia but need relief from recurrent sinus infections.

Dr. Nancy Butler is an otolaryngologist at Holy Family Memorial's Lakeshore Ear, Nose and Throat in Manitowoc.

Chronic Sinus Infection Problems of the Elderly

A salient article from worlddental.org with regards to dental origin of suspected sinus infections are reproduced below:

[Chronic sinusitis is a condition currently affecting approximately 13% of the Americans. On a yearly basis, there are $6 billion spent and 13 million visits made to the doctor because of this complaint.

Some patients get relief from treatment with antibiotics, while others simply have to accept it as a way of life, because it is very hard to find what is causing it.

According to studies led by the Ferguson group of otolaryngologists from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the cause of sinusitis for patients for whom endoscopic surgery failed, was dental infection. The initial study involved looking at the situation of 5 patients for which surgery didn’t work.

Further, the offending infected tooth of these patients has been extracted, and the sinus symptoms have vanished.

Next, the group of researchers studied a sample of 186 patients who have been taken CT scans for sinusitis. The result was pretty much the same: the main cause for sinusitis has been dental infection.

Moreover, scientists also reported that in the cases where a greater amount of fluid in the sinus was noticeable, the diagnosis was even clearer that it was caused by an infected tooth. Severe sinus cases have been clearly caused by dental infection in 86% of the cases studied.

Therefore, it is suggested that CT scans should be given more importance, and should be more thoroughly examined, because there is a great chance that the sinusitis is caused by dental problems. Moreover, conventional dental testing is most often not enough when diagnosing a patient with sinus infection.

Sinus pathology and teeth problems are obviously related, especially since the dental cone beam CT scan appeared (which actually exposes the patient to 80% less radiation than traditional scans).

If you have been struggling with serious sinus infections, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Contact your ENT surgeon and ask for a review of your scan in order to look for possible tooth infections

If you still cannot find a clear diagnosis, take another CT scan and ask your dentist/ dental radiologist to review it]