Chronic sinusitis can not be defined as a dangerous condition; however this disease can affect your life significantly. Imagine that you are not able to focus on your work due to racking and periodic headaches. Or have to miss work because of general weakness caused by fever, clogged nose and persistent fatigue. In fact, recent studies showed that chronic sinusitis is one of the primary causes of absence from work.
Sinusitis means that there is inflammation or infection in your sinuses. This disease is defined as chronic because its symptoms manifest themselves for a long time or constantly recur. Here are the symptoms that are most common when a person is affected by sinusitis:
• Thick, greenish or yellow discharge
• Reduced smell or taste
• Nasal blockage
• Face pain
• Coughing
• Sore throat
• Foul breath
• Nausea
• Fatigue
Chronic sinusitis can have many causes. Nasal polyps or tumors can lead to the stuffiness in the nose, which makes it more susceptible to infection. Various physical disorders such as deviated nasal septum can also result in chronic sinusitis because of insignificant outflow from the sinuses. Allergies, tooth infections, or acute sinusitis neglected in the past can also provoke chronic sinusitis.
How to treat chronic sinusitis:
• Doctors usually prescribed their patients antibiotic therapy for three or four weeks.
• Antibiotics fight the bacteria that cause the infection and hinder their further growth.
• Medicines can be used intravenously, orally, or through the nasal spray.
Antibiotic therapy is usually harmless and doesn’t cause many side effects. Moreover, it is very efficacious. Surveys reveal that the use of a proper antibiotic at the right dosage heals sinusitis in 90 per cent of the cases.
During antibiotic treatment it is essential to precisely follow the prescriptions of the physician. There are people who tend to discontinue their treatment as soon as they see the first signs of improvement or right after the symptoms have gone. Others take lower dosages of the medicine or don’t take it at the right time. This is the reason why the infection tends to anticipate. Misuse of the medicine can also make the infection insensitive to its action.
Like any other medication, antibiotics may cause side effects in some cases. Here are some of the common side effects related to the intake of antibiotics:
• Diarrhea
• Stomach upset
• Vaginal candidiasis
• Allergic responses
• Inflammation of the bowels
If you experience any of the aforementioned side effects, consult your physician right away and ask for an alternative treatment. It may also occur that even a long-lasting use of antibiotics cannot heal chronic sinusitis. In such situations patients may mitigate the symptoms of sinusitis and enhance the quality of their lives turning to some of the alternative options that are listed below:
1. Steam treatments. They help to remove the phlegm and relief nasal blockage.
2. Irrigation of nasal passages is very helpful as it helps to get rid of excess mucus and clear up irritants.
3. Abundant drinking is necessary for the humidification of the organism. Healthy nutrition strengthens the immune system and helps to avert infections.
4. Changes your way of living. Do regular exercises so as to keep your body strong and healthy. Quit smoking and drinking alcohol because these pernicious habits make you susceptible to infections.
5. Consult your physician and inquire about surgical procedure that may me help to enhance the drainage in the sinus. One of the possible ways to remove stuffiness in nose is endoscopic surgery.

Antibiotics are medicines that possess bactericidal properties. In other words these are drugs that fight bacteria or avert their growth in the organism. However, antibiotics are not helpful in treatment of influenza virus and viruses that cause chill.
If the immune system of a person is healthy and strong, it can effectively resist attacks of bacteria. White corpuscles and antibodies can generally kill harmful bacteria prohibiting their growth that could result in symptoms of disease. But even if symptoms manifest themselves, a healthy organism can still battle against infection. However, if our immunity is weak, our organism becomes unable to cope with the infection and additional help is required. This is when antibiotics can come to the rescue.

Types of antibiotics

Antibiotics are ranged as narrow-spectrum medicines if they are effective against just a few classes of bacteria. Broad-spectrum antibiotics, in their turn, affect many classes of bacteria. However the treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics poses a hazard of provoking antibiotic resistance. Therefore, doctors tend to prescribe narrow-spectrum antibiotics whenever possible. Besides, they cost cheaper. As for broad-spectrum antibiotics, they are not usually ordered unless the condition of a patient requires.

Below are the most prevalent types of antibiotics that are used today:

1. Narrow spectrum antibiotics

• Penicillins
• Macrolides

2. Broad spectrum antibiotics

• Cephalosporins
• Fluoroquinolones

Penicillins
Bacteria are nourished through absorbing nutrient substances from the human body until they are ready to divide into two. This is the way how bacteria multiply. In the process of their growth, bacteria produce the cell wall. The action of penicillin consists in hindering the building of the cell wall by bacteria. The reproduction of bacteria may stop through their cell walls. Thus bacteria are killed and infection goes away. Amoxicillin is an antibiotic of this class that is often prescribed by doctors to treat sinus infections.

Macrolides
Macrolides retard or block the production of proteins in bacteria. They fulfil mainly bacteriostatic function, which means that they don’t directly eliminate bacteria, but decrease their amount strengthening the immune system of the organism. High doses of these antibiotics can also destroy bacteria though. In contrast to cephalosporins and penicillins, macrolides almost don’t cause allergy reactions. Among the most prevalent antibiotics of this group are clarithromycin and erythromycin. Clarithromycin is the most popular antibiotic of this class that is ordered by otolaryngologists for sinusitis treatment.

Cephalosporins
Cephalosporins, similarly to penicillins, destroy bacteria by preventing the formation of cell walls. Ceftibuten dihydrate is an antibiotic of this group used orally. Besides being recommended by otolaryngologists as very effective treatment for sinus infection cephalosporins are also prescribed to those who have an allergy to penicillin.

Fluoroquinolones
This is the latest antibiotic class. Fluoroquinolones fight bacteria by impeding the replication process of DNA of bacteria. This is attained by binding and restraining the action of one ferment involved in replication of DNA. Moxifloxacin is an antibiotic of this group used for sinusitis treatment.

What antibiotic is the most effective for sinusitis?

In fact, it is rather difficult to give the answer because the choice of the proper antibiotic depends on different factors, such as:

1. How rapidly is the medicine absorbed into the blood flow?

2. How does the organism discharge the drug?

3. The nature and the gravity of the disease.

4. The risk of allergies or any other serious responses or side effects to the medicine.

5. The price of the drugs.

A narrow-spectrum antibiotic Amoxicillin is often recommended for mild stages of sinusitis. If this is a chronic condition, the new group of broad-spectrum drugs such as Moxifloxacin can be prescribed. Sometimes it may be difficult to define which antibiotic is better to use, because what is effective for one patient may be not helpful for another, although conditions are similar. It means that only the specialist can prescribe you the proper antibiotic for sinusitis. The right solution can be found only after analyzing all the factors that have been mentioned above. It should also be taken into account that some people may have very serious side effects after using specific classes of antibiotics. Consequently, it is necessary to carefully monitor the development of allergic responses.