You're coughing and sneezing and tired and achy. You think that you might be getting a cold. Later, when the medicines you've been taking to relieve the symptoms of the common cold are not working and you've now got a terrible headache, you finally drag yourself to the doctor. After listening to your history of symptoms, examining your face and forehead, and perhaps doing a sinus X-ray, the doctor says you have sinusitis.

The sinuses are four pairs of hollow spaces in the bones of the face lined with mucous membranes and connected to the nose. The sinuses allow air to flow freely within the spaces in and out of the nose. Small hairs in the sinuses (cilia) regularly help move mucous out through the nose. When the small openings from the nose to the sinus cavities (sinus ostia) are blocked, or when too much mucous is produced, inflammation can occur within sinus cavities and cause acute sinusitis.

The main symptoms of sinusitis are pain and pressure in the face. The location of pain and tenderness depends on which sinus is inflamed. When pain is over the cheek and upper teeth may be caused by the maxillary sinus' inflammation. Pain in the forehead above the eyebrow may be triggered by inflammation of the frontal sinus. Once pain is behind the eyes, on top of the head, or in both temples may be brought about by sphenoid sinus' inflammation. The inflammation of the ethmoid sinus can be identified by the pain around or behind the eyes.

Sinus infection symptoms are caused by inflammation and blockage of the sinus cavities. Sinuses are hollow pockets of air located on either side of the nose, behind and in-between the eyes, and in the forehead. The sinuses produce mucus that cleans and moistens the membranes of the nose and throat. Each sinus has an opening into the nose that allows for free exchange of mucus and air. Sinus infection symptoms result when these openings get plugged.

Some additional signs that the doctor will check for in order to diagnose sinusitis are swollen areas around the eyes, nasal passages that have become reddened, facial areas over the sinuses that are tender to percussion (tapping) and drainage from the nose that is similar to pus. Sometimes additional information is used to diagnose this information, such as patient history, and certain tests such as a CT scan or MRI might also be performed because these tests are far better at revealing the actual infection than an X-Ray.

Fatigue-Even when you should feel rested. This is the sneakiest one of all. This is the one that creeps up on you slowly and unnoticed. If you are living with the symptoms on this list you are certainly not reaching your true potential at work, family life or at rest.

Bad breath. Think about it this way-your senses of smell and taste are really messed up right now-and you can still smell and taste your bad breath. What does everybody else think about your breath right now?

Pain or pressure symptoms worse when coughing, straining, or lying on the back and better when the head is upright.

Commonly the symptoms of sinus infection are headache, facial tenderness or pain, and fever. However, as few as 25% of patients may have fever associated with acute sinus infection. Other common symptoms include cloudy, discolored nasal drainage, a feeling of nasal stuffiness, a sore throat, and a cough.

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