Confusion over Sinus Headache Symptoms

Many people report sinus headache symptoms to their doctors and are diagnosed with sinus headaches. Other people diagnose the problem on their own based on what they know to be sinus headache symptoms. In both cases, the fact of having the symptoms leads to treatment of sinus headache; however, most of these people probably don’t actually have sinus headaches. Their symptoms might be pointing to migraine headaches instead.

The Symptoms

Sinus headaches have many of the same symptoms of other types of headaches, mainly pain in the head, and facial pain around the eyes, nose and the forehead. What makes the difference between symptoms of a sinus headache and symptoms of a migraine headache is that migraines are not usually accompanied by nasal discharge and fever. The difference between the two types of headaches is that sinus headache means you have a sinus infection, whereas migraine means there’s something going on outside of the sinuses causing the migraine, although the sinuses may be affected by the migraine itself. Thus, the difference between the two is whether your sinus symptoms are from headache or from an infection.

Why Differentiate the Two?

The main reason to differentiate whether you are suffering from sinus headaches or from migraine headaches is that treating the two different kinds of headaches involves two very different treatment plans. In order to cure the symptoms of a sinus headache, the infection must be taken care of, whereas curing a migraine headache involves regulating hormone levels or relieving tension. Sinus headache medications treat the infection while relieving some of the pain; migraine medications target hormones and other balances in your body. Migraine medications may also target the pain; it depends on whether you are taking a preventative migraine medication or a medication that deals with migraines that are already present.

Suffering from sinus headache symptoms doesn’t always mean that you have sinus headaches. In fact, recent studies show that only a very small percentage of people who think they have sinus headaches and have been diagnosed as such by their doctors actually suffer from sinus headaches. Most of them actually suffer from migraine headaches, yet still treat them with sinus headache medication, which doesn’t work so well in most cases. The first step to treating sinus headache symptoms is to get a proper diagnosis so that you know exactly what you should be treating.