Upper West SC News

• The lifetime cost of managing acute sinusitis is $38,515
• The management of sinusitis in the United States exceeds $11 billion per year overall
• There are minimally invasive treatment options for sinusitis that can provide long-term results and reduce your healthcare costs in return

Managing long-term chronic sinusitis can be extremely expensive, but a balloon sinuplasty can relieve symptoms long-term, so patients don't have to pay unnecessary healthcare costs. Citing a study by Cleveland Clinic comparing sinusitis patients who get treated earlier versus later, Dr. Andy Wells of Columbia Breathe Free said the difference in cost was major.

"The early intervention patients required significantly less intervention overall, and their response to the treatment was much, much better," said Wells. "Those folks in a later treatment group had a lot less improvement overall. They also showed that they required a lot more intervention, a lot more treatment over time. They even looked at and estimated the lifetime cost of treating chronic sinusitis over and over again with medicines in this later treatment group, and it was over $40,000 just for that."

Chronic sinusitis is a condition where the sinuses, the spaces inside your nose and head, become inflamed and swollen for a period of three months or more, according to Mayo Clinic. This disrupts the normal drainage of mucus, leading to nasal congestion and difficulty in breathing through the nose. As a result, individuals may experience a stuffy nose, and the area around their eyes may feel tender and swollen. They listed the triggers to be infections, the presence of nasal polyps (abnormal growths in the sinuses), or inflammation of the sinus lining. Both adults and children can be affected by this condition.

If you leave chronic sinusitis untreated for a long period of time, the personal costs can be expensive. A study published in PubMed noted that the lifetime cost of managing sinusitis amounted to $38,515. Some of these variables include the cost of antibiotics, as well as time lost from work.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology reported approximately 1 in 8 adults in the U.S. are affected by sinusitis, leading to more than 30 million diagnoses each year. They also noted that the management of acute and chronic sinusitis incurs a direct cost of over $11 billion annually, including everything that goes into it.

Instead of paying for the constant fees that come with sinusitis, you can seek long-term treatment options that are minimally invasive and will save you money in the long run. One of these treatment options is known as balloon sinuplasty, which is a safe and minimally invasive procedure utilized by surgeons to address chronic sinusitis, according to Nuffield Health. During the process, doctors insert a guide wire equipped with a small balloon into the nostrils and navigate it to the area of blockage.

If you think you could benefit from a minimally invasive sinus treatment to improve your quality of life, take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.