CC: Best Treatment for Sinusitis

What is the best treatment for your sinusitis?

The Modern Nose Clinic would like to orient you to the full treatment spectrum. Each patient may fall in a different place in the spectrum,  Let us proceed.  There is a full spectrum of treatment options for the treatment of sinusitis and it's important to get an idea of the lay of the land so you can see where you fall in that spectrum

Let me explain.  We start off here with doing nothing.  You're a healthy person.  You don't really have any other medical problems. You don't have diabetes. You don't have any amino deficiencies. Isn’t this a cold? Maybe it is and frankly a lot of sinusitis begins as a cold. So when does that viral cold thing stop and a bacterial infection begin?  When you get that pure light or a green thick, yellowish thick drainage out the front of your nose or out the back of your nose that's when we start to think probably bacterial.

What's a runny nose?  

Your sneezing, nasal congestion - that might just be viral.  So to begin with, you might just watch it. A lot of people observe. The next treatment option up from that which is right next to it right here is to use medications oftentimes over-the-counter medications can work. For instance Sudafed, in the state of Oregon, where we are, you can't get Sudafed over-the-counter but other states you can.

Mucinex, saline irrigation is fantastic. It's inexpensive.  They sell it at Costco amongst other places, so we really like that. Check out our video on how to do the nasal irrigation ball correctly. So consider those things if you'd like and a lot of people get better with that.  Those people who don't get they get better,  they go back over here to kind of living with it.  The people who don't get completely better do something that we call the dance, the sinusitis dance. And, that is, I'm a little bit better but not completely;  no I'm not I think I'll try an antibiotic;  oh I'm a little bit better; no I'm not, I'll do nasal irrigation, I'll do an antihistamine, I'll do flonase and you do this dance. You know the reason why people do that dance?   It's because they are smart.  The reason why people do that dance,I'm gonna scoot back a little bit more to give you the better spectrum here, is that we've got doing nothing, which is totally acceptable unless you've got other medical problems or unless this keeps going over and over again. There is doing over-the-counter medications which we'll have another video that will focus exclusively on that but for the purposes of this you get the idea right.  And, then after that everyone knows the next treatment option is all the way over here and nobody frankly wants to go over here.  

This is going to the operating room, having an anesthesiologist, not put you to sleep, but basically induce a comatose state.  When you're under general anesthesia that's similar to being in a coma, a medically induced coma, and then paralyzed and I tell you right now it's not good for your brain to be in a coma and paralyzed.   And, you're paying a couple thousand dollars for that.  So you're going to the operating room for anesthesia.  You have to then pay that anesthesiologist and you have to pay the operating room, which makes sense.  You have to reserve the operating room.  It's an expensive thing to run.  

So right now we're looking at $1,500 for an anesthesiologist,  4,000 or $5,000 or more for the operating room ,depending on if you go to the hospital could be 8,000.  If you're in a surgery center it could be 5,000.  So it's a lot of money.  So there's a financial burden that a lot of people just can't take.  The other reason why people are really reluctant to go to the operating room is that you miss two weeks of work.  You've got your nose packed because why, because when you're asleep in the OR  a lot of doctors will cut out much material in your nose.  When they cut out that material you bleed.  When you're under general anesthesia your blood vessels dilate so everything you do you bleed more.  So while you're under in your coma, paralyzed having things in your nose cut out and you're bleeding you get packed. And, so you need narcotics, so you miss work and we've all heard the stories.  And you know what, you know the funny thing about this going all the way over here because some of you may have done that. A lot of really nice patients would forgive the doctor in the medical system all of those shortcomings. They're so desperate for something more.  If it wasn't for the last, what we call, the last unforgivable sin about going to the operating room with general anesthesia.  And that is and we've all heard this story.  Often times it doesn't even work.  So that's a problem.  I think we could all agree.  

So at The Modern Nose Clinic we have another treatment option that you might consider.  Doing nothing. If that doesn't work, trying medicines if that doesn't work we've got an option right here, which is you come to our clinic, bring a friend or a family member.  There is no anesthesiologist.  There is no IV.  You take three pills.  Some people take two.  You get perfectly relaxed.  We play some music.  We turn down the lights.  Your family member is allowed to come and watch.  We encourage it.  We enjoy taking the time to get to know your spouse or other friend or a family member so they will watch.  And, we can float a little tiny balloon into the opening of the sinus and we inflate that balloon for five seconds.  Let me show you.  

So my friends,  this is a little tiny balloon and you see how it advances back and forth.  And just give you a size, understanding this is how big my finger is. So the tip of this is less than a millimeter and it's malleable.  You can bend it any way you want.  You can't even, if you put a piece of paper here and you push up, you can't punch a hole through the paper so it's very very delicate instrument.  And,  we will fashion this in whatever pattern we need to, to get to the opening of your sinus.  We then advance the balloon along the opening and we inflate it.  We inflate that for five seconds and you'll hear that little rice krispies sound as it inflates, three, four, five.  We deflate it. We retract it and you are fixed.  So if you want to live with it doesn't work,  try medicines, it doesn't work, consider coming to The Modern Nose Clinic and  having an awake procedure with no anesthesia. And, it takes less than an hour,  sometimes a half an hour.  Have a friend or a family member watch.  We make a video out of every procedure.  You can have a copy to take home so you can see yourself o exactly what we did. And, those who observe can see firsthand. They can see the sinus open.  They can see the infection coming down. And,  often the patients during the procedure say, oh my gosh it suddenly feels better.  I can suddenly feel my sinus opening and I can feel things dribbling out, which is really satisfying.  And, so I just share this with you, so that in case you need something more that you're aware, there's something different that The Modern Nose Clinic.

Douglas Skarada, Medical Director, Modern Nose Clinic, signing out.  

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our video.  If you liked the video, please like it and subscribe to our Channel.  Take care At the Modern Nose Clinic we do less cutting and more curing.