What appeared to be chronic sinusitis was actually tooth infection

Hi, this post is for the people searching for answers, and is intended to help those who may be in a situation similar to mine. The story is that I had functional sinus surgery four years ago, and immediately became very sick with what felt like a horrendous sinus infection. I was bed-ridden for three months, half my hair fell out, I had a fever every day. In addition to the sinus symptoms I also had a constant dull headache and intermittent excruciating head pains on the top of my head, blurry vision and sensitivity to light, a dry/sore throat. I saw five ENTs, two neurologists, three immunologists, two primary care physicians, a handful of physician assistants, a rheumatologist, a doctor who specialized in psychosomatic disorders, the top infectious disease doctor in my area, an infectious disease doctor at Mayo, a very expensive diagnostician, and a new allergy doctor. Not one of them had any idea what was wrong.

I had several doctors gaslight me about my symptoms, no one would address the daily fever. After a doctor saw me and decided they couldn't help me, I got no direction. Mayo was actually the worst. He did no testing, aside from taking my temp, which at the time was normal, then told me I didn't have an infection.

Every time I took antibiotics I felt tremendous relief in every single symptom, but the relief wouldn't last longer than a week or two. I knew I was fixable, but I couldn't find anyone to help me get a diagnosis. I knew it was an infection, because I know exactly how infection feels in my body. The worst diagnosis I got was "you're breathing different after the surgery, just get on with your life". I couldn't because any physical activity flared my symptoms and caused me to return to bed.

Things turned a corner a year ago when my dentist noticed I had a root canal (front four teeth have root canals) that was infected. I got it fixed and felt better for a couple weeks. A year later another was infected, and once again I felt better briefly. I went to an oral surgeon who suspected my root canals had failed, and I got that opinion backed up by a second oral surgeon. Turns out there's a constant leak of bacteria from my root canals into my bloodstream and the tissue in my mouth, nose, and cheeks. I have septicemia (bacteria in my blood) which caused my feeling of being sick, and I have cellulitis in my nasal cavity. I didn't understand there was a difference between the nasal cavity and the sinuses until the oral surgeon explained it. He said he's seen other people like me, with illness from dental infection.

The cure for me is to have my two front teeth pulled, and have implants placed, the process for which will take more than a year since I've had so much bone loss in my upper jaw due to the infection. It's thought that during my sinus surgery there was trauma to the roots of the front teeth, probably cracking them, and causing bacteria to stream out constantly.

This post is meant to help anyone who can't find answers for what seems to be a sinus infection, but it isn't.