Treatment

Most cases of acute sinusitis get better on their own. Self-care techniques are usually all you need to ease symptoms.

Treatments to relieve symptoms

Your doctor may recommend treatments to help relieve sinusitis symptoms, including:

• Saline nasal spray, which you spray into your nose several times a day to rinse your nasal passages.
• Nasal corticosteroids. These nasal sprays help prevent and treat inflammation. Examples include fluticasone (Flonase Allergy Relief, Flonase Sensimist Allergy Relief, others), budesonide (Rhinocort Allergy), mometasone (Nasonex) and beclomethasone (Beconase AQ, Qnasl, others).
• Decongestants. These medications are available in over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription liquids, tablets and nasal sprays. Use nasal decongestants for only a few days. Otherwise they may cause the return of more-severe congestion (rebound congestion).
• Allergy medications. If your sinusitis is due to allergies, using allergy medications may help lessen allergy symptoms.

• OTC pain relievers, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) or aspirin.

  Use caution when giving aspirin to children or teenagers. Though aspirin is approved for use in children older than 3, children and teenagers recovering from chickenpox or flu-like symptoms should never take aspirin. This is because aspirin has been linked to Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, in such children.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics usually aren't needed to treat acute sinusitis, because it's usually caused by a virus and not by bacteria. Even if your acute sinusitis is bacterial, it may clear up without treatment. Your doctor might wait and watch to see if your acute sinusitis worsens before prescribing antibiotics.

However, severe, progressive or persistent symptoms might require antibiotics. If your doctor prescribes an antibiotic, be sure to take the whole course, even after your symptoms get better. If you stop taking them early, your symptoms may recur.

Immunotherapy

If allergies are contributing to your sinusitis, allergy shots (immunotherapy) that help reduce the body's reaction to specific allergens may help treat your symptoms.