Patients suffering from chronic sinus infections mostly get treated with antibiotics, which carries the risk of increasing the patient’s immunity to antibiotics.
Dr. Jeffrey Feinfield, otolaryngologist and facial plastic surgeon at Bella Vista ENT, explained the dangers of antibiotic immunity.
"It's a big problem in the United States; I think we overprescribe antibiotics way too much," Feinfield told Patient Daily. "Patients, when they come to a primary care office or urgent care, they want to leave with something. They want a quick fix and unfortunately, we over-treat with antibiotics and so what happens is sometimes we're giving antibiotics unnecessarily, which leads to resistance. When bacteria slowly become resistant to that particular antibiotic, that makes it very dangerous because it really decreases the tools in the physician's toolbox to be able to treat patients."
Feinfield advised patients to explore alternatives to antibiotics to deal with chronic sinus problems. He said that patients should see an ENT doctor to get the problem diagnosed properly and that a balloon sinuplasty procedure would fix the vast majority of chronic sinus infections without the need for antibiotics.
Balloon sinuplasty is a newer type of surgery that is minimally invasive and offers quick patient-recovery periods, according to Cedars Sinai.
Feinfield also recommended that patients seek early intervention with chronic sinusitis to maintain quality of life. A Bioworld study found that early intervention after diagnoses of chronic rhinosinusitis is associated with lower health-care utilization.
Another Bioworld study found that COVID-19 is causing an increase in antibiotic resistance among the population.
