Signs You Have A Sinus Infection

When it comes to health issues that affect your nasal passages and your upper respiratory system, it can be difficult to tell one health condition from another. Often, a cold, the flu, and even sinus infections can all seem quite similar to someone that does not know what specific signs to watch out for. Learn about some of the major signs that you might have a sinus infection rather than one of these other conditions that affect the nasal and respiratory systems. Then, you can contact your family doctor as soon as possible if you believe that you might have a sinus infection. 

You Have a Pressure Headache

There are many different types of headaches that a person can experience. But when you have a sinus infection, the headaches you might experience are almost always pressure-based. This means that you will feel pressure or swelling in your head that seems to be causing or worsening your headache. This pressure is most commonly located behind or in between the eyes, but can also radiate from the temples when the sinuses are involved. 

You Have Pain In Your Sinuses

You have several sinuses in your face. The frontal sinuses are located in your lower forehead right above the inner portion of your eyebrows. Directly between your eyes and at the base of your nose, you have the ethmoid sinuses and the sphenoid sinuses. Then lower on your cheeks, alongside your nose and nostrils are the maxillary sinuses. When you have a sinus infection, you might feel pain in just one set of those sinuses, or you might feel pain in several sinus areas in your face.

Facial pain, and its specific location, can often help distinguish a sinus infection from the cold or the flu. Sinus pain often involves a deep aching in those specific areas of the face. Facial pain from the flu or cold is often more generalized and may be a more surface-level pain. 

You Have Colorful Nasal Discharge

When you have a sinus infection, you tend to have a lot of nasal drainage. And that drainage is often yellowish or greenish in color. If you notice a great deal of yellow or green discharge when you blow your nose, you may be looking at a sinus infection. When you go to your primary care doctor with sinus infection symptoms, the appearance of your nasal discharge will be one of the first things they ask about for this reason. 

Now that you know some of the signs that you have a sinus infection, be sure to contact your family doctor for an appointment if you notice any of these symptoms.