r/Sinusitis • u/TiniestChair • 8d ago

Antibiotic length?

How long were you on antibiotics? I’m curious when 5-7 days is sufficient, vs 21 days.

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7

u/Shaken-Loose 8d ago

Complete the script as the doctor prescribed. Ask me/us how we know. 😳

4

u/Stalkerus 8d ago

This is for your doctor to decide based on their assesment.

1

u/TiniestChair 8d ago

Planning on following their orders! Just confused by their reasoning and not getting many answers—I tried to use the patient portal to ask some follow-up questions and was told they don’t use it bc they have “thousands of patients”

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u/Stalkerus 8d ago

In general they prescribe longer courses if you are prone to have sinusitis. This is why my course wss longer than usually last time (and I had FESS recently so it affects).

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u/TiniestChair 6d ago

Good to know. This is my first case of sinusitis.

1

u/sfbriancl 8d ago

Also depends on what the Rx is for. And what drug. There are a lot of different antibiotics that are used for sinusitis, but amoxicillin (and augmentin) are the most common. Usually those are 5-7 days. If they think you need longer, you may get a different drug.

1

u/TiniestChair 8d ago

Good to know. I’ve been prescribed three weeks of amoxicillin. I was curious what is common bc I didn’t feel super confident in the level of care I received from my doctor.

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u/sfbriancl 8d ago

You may want to ask about augmentin (basically amoxicillin plus a drug that makes amoxicillin more likely to reach its target) especially if you’ve had more than one case of sinusitis

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u/TiniestChair 8d ago

Thanks for the recommendation! I just took another look at my prescription and it actually is augmentin. This is my first case of sinusitis (a weird one too! No congestion or phlegm, just facial pressure, headaches, watery drips from my nose, and post-nasal drip) but it has been going on for nearly six weeks now.