by Eric Lannak

Created on: January 18, 2010

Sinus pressure has many different causes, and what works for one person often won’t work for another. Because of this many sinus sufferers try tip after suggestion after remedy and get little relief, and in some cases things can even backfire and make matters worse.

Trial-and-error treatment might work fine for some, and if you quickly find a successful remedy you’re one of the lucky few… buy you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you found that magic bullet. More often hit-or-miss is a frustrating, time consuming, and sometimes distressing process. A better way would be to understand what’s behind the problem and select the remedies that apply to you.

So Tip Number One is:

KNOW YOUR NOSE

Your nasal passages are caverns that stretch back from your nose to your throat, with walls that rise from your nostrils to your eyes and floors that extend back to a spot roughly below your ears. These caverns are large, and if your nose and nasal structures were removed you could fit three fingers into the hollow behind each nostril.  

Your sinuses are little “side caves” off these caverns. There’s one in each cheekbone, one behind each eyebrow, a pair side-by-side behind the bridge of the nose, and yet another pair above and behind those. Each sinus has only one opening (called an “ostium”, or “ostia” in the plural), and that opening leads to the nasal passages.

Everything in your nose is lined with membranes that produce about a quart of mucous a day, which your nose uses to warm, humidify, and cleanse the air you breathe.  These membranes are studded with countless tiny whip-like structures called “cilia” that flail back and forth to push mucous through your nasal passages toward your throat. The cilia beat about 10 times a second and work 24/7 without a break. They’re tireless, but the cilia aren’t very strong, and changes in mucous thickness and many other factors can slow them down.

Within the sinus chambers a thin layer of mucous clings to the membranes on the sinus walls, and the cilia paddle it across the membrane toward the ostium. The rest of the chamber is normally filled with air that seeps in and out through the ostia to balance the air pressure with the outside, and these changes in pressure also help your brain sense air flow in the nose.

A sinus with an obstructed ostium is like a sink with a dripping faucet and a clogged drain. The membranes

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