Grand Canyon Times

• 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.

In order to manage chronic sinusitis long term, it can be extremely expensive, but a balloon sinuplasty can relieve symptoms long term so you don't have to pay any more unnecessary healthcare costs. Dr. Brian Lee of Scottsdale Sinus and Allergy Center said a balloon sinuplasty can permanently open up the sinuses and allow patients to function better long term.

"Essentially what that is, is a tool we can use to help to permanently open up the sinuses that allows the sinuses to drain and allows us to get up in there to see if there is a chronic infection or mucus and get that stuff out. This finally allows us to permanently enlarge the drainage pathways to allow patients to function better in the future."

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 the 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 that approximately 1 in 8 adults in the United States 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.