Sinus pain is a fairly common symptom that patients experience and many patients feel like it's caused due to sinusitis, which is inflammation of the sinus cavities.

In many cases the pain is actually due to the nerves that are running through the sinus cavities.

The cause of this is from the nerves being very irritated and there's an imbalance. Also, the endpoints of these nerves are on sinus mucosa, so when they're irritated the sinus mucosa gets irritated as well, which consequently results in the congestion and discharge symptoms.

When you're trying to manage the patients with facial pain, the number one thing to do is to focus on education to help patients understand that what they may be experiencing is not an acute sinus infection and they don't need to be on antibiotics.

Patients potentially need to see someone who specializes in nerve pain like a neurologist or a pain specialist. A neurologist or even a pain specialist may target the pain in multiple different ways. Sometimes they use an oral medication that targets the nerves, and sometimes with an injection into the muscles.

The neurologists or pain specialists may deem that the pain is trigged from a migraine history or any other any other kind of headache disorder. They may target the treatment with the right drugs based on this diagnosis.

Biologics are drugs that patients will inject into their body to target a particular inflammatory marker that's causing their disease process.

Biologics used for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps

These medications help reduce the size of nasal polyps and improve the symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis when used in conjunction with a steroid nasal spray or wash.

Biologics are very expensive medication that is used after an individual's done topical medical therapy as well as surgery and continues to have chronic sinus disease, in particular polyp disease.

Depending on the type of drug, a patient may inject themselves every second week or sometimes every month, or sometimes every six months depending on the drug that's prescribed for the patient.

Bacterial infections are usually treated with antibiotics, nasal spray, decongestants, and nasal saline irrigations.

For chronic sinusitis, surgery to open the blocked sinuses may be required.

Allergies can also be at root cause of inflammatory issues in the sinus cavities. If the inflammation is allergy driven, something like an anti histamine spray can be beneficial for people, as well as a nasal saline rinse.

Nasal polyps can contribute to chronic sinusitis in that they can block the drainage of sinus cavities. The mucus produced by the sinuses is meant to wash away irritants and contaminants from the nasal passages. If nasal polyps get too big, they may block the normal flow of mucus and cause it to build up and become infected.

Common symptoms of chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps include: Runny, stuffy nose and mucus running down the throat, which is also known as postnasal drip.

Treatments for polyps can include steroidal nasal spray, oral steroids and in some severe cases the use of Biologics