Chronic Sinusitis
CAUSE
Mayo Clinic did a study a few years back looking at the cause of chronic sinus infections. The typical treatment for these sinus issues is based on the belief that the infection must be due to some bacteria. Therefore an antibiotic of one sort of the other is generally used to treat. What if the premise is wrong? Mayo’s study showed that, in fact, the premise is wrong. Therefore repeated rounds of antibiotics are not helpful and might make the problem even worse. The Mayo Clinic study showed that about 96% of chronic sinus infections are caused by a fungus, typically candida albicans - the same fungus that causes most vaginal yeast infections.
Some chronic sinus infections are due to a bad tooth. An example is a root canal gone bad, but not seen as such on routine screening X-rays. Or a wisdom tooth that has not been pulled and is thought to be ok, but in fact is infected. These back teeth can be the cause of many chronic illnesses including sinus infections.
Sometimes chronic sinus issues are simply a manifestation of allergic-type reaction or “sensitivities” to some food. This would be somewhat similar to some of the autoimmune reactions.
TREATMENT
If the problem is a fungal issue, it needs to be treated as a fungal issue. And we can help you with that. These are the important steps to take:
Avoid foods that feed fungus. Sugars are the best way to make fungus grow. Thus one needs to get onto a very careful diet that has been shown to improve one’s ability to fight off fungal infections.
One should use lots of probiotics and prebiotics.
Be sure the gut is working well. Most of these fungal issues are sourced out of the gut.
Take a good anti-fungal medication or herbal treatment.
In order to know whether the cause might be a problem tooth, we need the help of a good and experienced dentist. Many routine X-rays will not be able to tell whether or not a tooth is bad. The definitive way to find out whether or not a tooth might be causing your chronic sinus issues (or other health issues) is to have a Cone Beam CT scan done. In general, I’m reticent to suggest CT scans to my patients as the radiation exposure can be quite significant. Example: a CT of the abdomen may be equivalent radiation to 200 chest X-rays, or thereabouts. The good news is that the dental folk have created CT machines that expose one only to very small amounts of radiation. In my view, getting these tests done is quite safe.
Let me give you one brief example - not of a chronic sinus case, but a chronic “I don’t feel good” case. The principles are the same, however.
This person is a dentist friend who I’ve known for some time. We’ve chatted over the years many times about the role of teeth on general health. During a recent visit he recounted his own fresh experience. For a couple of years he had just not felt well. Life looked bleak, in spite of excellent circumstances. He couldn’t figure it out. All dental X-rays were quite normal. But one tooth kind of bothered him a bit. So he decided to get a Cone Beam CT done and it did show a questionable issue with one of his molars. He debated on what to do - pull it or get a root canal? He elected to do a root canal, carefully done by an expert, and within two days he was already feeling remarkably better, almost back to his usual, normal, joyful self.
Where root canals can cause problems, they are not necessarily a problem. And in this situation, he had the root canal while being aware he might need to go ahead and have the tooth pulled any way. In this case though, dramatic improvement of symptoms that would almost never be linked to something in the mouth.
If the chronic sinuses are being caused by allergies/sensitivities, the one must discover the specific causes and appropriately treat, not unlike one would treat an autoimmune issue.