Cold, Flu, & Cough Health Center

Is It a Cold or a Sinus Infection?

You feel run down, have a low-grade fever, post-nasal drip, and a sore throat. Common cold or sinus infection?

Put on your detective hat. A cold can actually morph into a sinus infection. But there are some classic symptoms for each illness that can help distinguish between the two.

Although a cold and a sinus infection do have a few overlapping symptoms, there are good indicators of each. Let’s take the common cold first.

Symptoms of the Common Cold

With a cold, there’s a cluster of symptoms including:

• Nasal congestion
• A run-down feeling
• Runny nose with clear discharge
• Sneezing
• Sore throat
• Post nasal drip (nasal fluid dripping down the back of the throat)
• Fever is uncommon with colds in adults but can be seen in children

Colds may be accompanied by a cough and headache and last three to seven days with or without any treatment.

The common cold is an upper respiratory infection caused by a virus. Cold symptoms usually build slowly over the course of a day or two, peak by days three or four, then slowly improve around the fifth or seventh day.

Treating Cold Symptoms

“Treatment for a cold is supportive care, fluids and chicken soup,” says Jordan Josephson, MD, author of Sinus Relief Now and director of the New York Nasal & Sinus Center. “The more water you drink, the more it hydrates you. This, number one is healthy, and number two, it gets the infection out because it liquefies the mucus.”

Medications to make you more comfortable can also help. For example:

• A decongestant may decrease drainage and open the nasal airways, making breathing easier.
• Pain relievers can reduce fever and relieve headache.
• A cough medication may help suppress coughs or expel the mucus that’s causing the cough.

Sometimes colds can set in the sinuses and cause swelling, which prevents the flow of mucus. These colds can actually turn into a sinus infection.

How will you know if that’s what’s happening? Josephson says if after two or three days with a cold, you feel worse and start to blow a green or yellow discharge from the nose, you may need to see your doctor or a sinus specialist to sort out your symptoms. You may have indeed developed a sinus infection.

Symptoms of a Sinus Infection (Sinusitis)

“They always make my face hurt, the back of my neck and here lately, as I've gotten older, my top teeth have gotten in on the act,” says Toni Synder, 49, of Kansas City, Mo., about her chronic sinusitis. It’s not uncommon for the roots of upper teeth to run into the sinus cavity, causing the pain.

Health experts estimate 37 million Americans are affected by sinusitis every year.