Sinus infections are more immunity related. Unfortunately, modern medicine has not come to grips with immunity related disorders.

Before getting into what are the options available, let us see what all the treatments aim to achieve.

As discussed earlier, sinus infections occur because the sinus membranes lining the cavities get inflamed or swollen. Sinus cavities have tiny openings through which they drain themselves. Now, this swelling causes these drainage openings to get blocked. As a result they cannot drain and leads to sinus infection.

All medial treatments are therefore aimed at reducing this inflammation. Oral and intranasal steroids are also used for this purpose. Decongestants and Expectorants also help in the thinning of the membrane to promote drainage.

While these methods have limited capability in doing so, they add to the system a heady cocktail of chemicals which can lead to various kinds of side-effects.

How antibiotics are supposed to work?

Through antibiotics the practitioner aims at attacking the infection and hoping that once the infection dies down, the membranes would automatically thin down and the inflammation would die down.

This appears as treating the effect rather than the cause. That is why in several cases the infection returns with the withdrawal of the antibiotics.

Why they seldom work for sinus infections:

Antibiotics are best used for bacteria related problems whereas sinus infections are generally virus related problems. So it would only seem natural that they would be useless for sinus infections.

Moreover, the growing resistance to antibiotics is well known. This can set a dangerous trend. It would be advisable to minimize such intake unless absolutely necessary AND proven for effectiveness.

Another school of thought believes that antibiotics are not effective for sinus infections because they work by acting through the blood stream. As the sinus cavities are themselves hollow bony structures, the efficacy of antibiotics is limited.