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The maxillary sinuses are part of the system of the paranasal sinuses, the air-filled structures in the bones of the face. It also includes the frontal and sphenoid sinuses, as well as the anterior and posterior ethmoid sinuses. All sinuses are lined with a thin layer of mucosa that produces a secretion that drains into the nasal cavity.
The role of the sinuses is to cause resonance when you sing or speak. The air filling them warms the skull and slightly reduces its weight.
Paired maxillary sinuses are cavities found in the shafts of the maxillary bones. They are formed in the fifth month of prenatal life and continue to grow until the appearance of permanent dentition. In a newborn baby, the maxillary sinuses are about the size of a pea, while in an adult, each sinus is about 24 cm3. One or two small openings connect the lumen of the sinus with the median nasal passage. The result is that any rhinitis continues to spread to the sinuses. Persistent swelling of the mucosa of the nasal turbinates accompanying a cold closes or significantly reduces the surfaces of the sinuses, which leads to the accumulation of secretions inside them, which is a great breeding ground for microorganisms. Acute sinusitis develops, the patient feels pain and distension in the cheek area, has a stuffy nose, runny nose, impaired sense of smell, fever appears in bacterial inflammation. More than once the inflammatory process in the sinuses is delayed, which is favored by e.g. allergy, anatomical changes in the nasal cavity in the form of a distortion of the nasal septum, the presence of polyps.
In the maxillary sinuses with an obstructed opening, a cyst called a mucinoma sometimes develops on a substrate changed by the chronic inflammation of the mucosa. It can reach large dimensions, filling the entire space of the sinus, and sometimes destroys its walls by “entering” the nasal cavity or orbit. Small cysts can be asymptomatic, large cysts cause severe headaches, and depending on the direction of expansion, cheek deformities, exophthalmos or nasal obstruction. Very rarely, a malignant neoplasm, usually squamous cell, develops in the maxillary sinuses.
In the lower wall of the maxillary sinuses there are maxillary alveolar processes, in which the teeth of the upper arch are fixed. Inflammation of the dental tissues and teeth can therefore also spread to these sinuses.
med. Aleksandra Czachowska
Internist – make an appointment