PHX Reporter

• If you're dealing with chronic headaches, it may be a result of inflamed sinuses.
• It's important to figure out what type of headaches you are dealing with so you can get the correct treatment.
• Dr. John Stewart and his team at Arizona Breathe Free can help to figure out if your headaches are a problem arising from sinus issues.

Sinusitis and headaches can go hand-in-hand, so Dr. John Stewart of Arizona Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers says that taking care of sinus pressure could be necessary to deal with headaches as well.

"[Sinus headaches are] basically the same thing as sinus pressure or dental pain," Stewart told PHX Reporter. "It's stimulating those nerve roots that cause discomfort. That's when people start complaining more about headaches. If they're in the lower sinuses, they'll complain of facial pain and dental pain. If they're in the back sinuses, they'll say that their ears feel pressured and they have discomfort there. But if they have global sinusitis, we call that pansinusitis. When they're more in the frontal region, that's what tends to stimulate those nerves that you and I will recognize as a headache."

According to Mayo Clinic, one of the symptoms of both sinus headaches and migraines is that pain sometimes worsens while laying down or bending over. Other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting or sensitivity to light or noise are symptoms of migraines, not sinus headaches.

If you have a sinus headache, it could be the result of a sinus inflammation. Your sinuses are spaces inside your forehead, cheekbones and behind the bridge of your nose that are filled with air, according to WebMD. When your sinuses get inflamed, they swell, make more mucus, and the channels that drain them can get blocked. The accumulation of pressure in your sinuses causes pain that feels like a headache. It's important to figure out what kind of headache you have, so the right course of action can be taken to relieve your pain.

Dealing with headaches can be a nuisance, but Stewart and his team at Arizona Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers can help diagnose problems that result from a sinus issue and help find the treatment you need.

To learn more about the symptoms of sinusitis and allergies, take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.