Chronic nasal drip drives me to distraction

Hello all,

I have had a nasal drip since childhood (approaching 60 now).

Always had comments “stop sniffing”, “have you got sinus problems?” etc.

Put up with it, it is all year round, no allergies that I am aware of, no hay fever. Worse while eating, in the cold but pretty much all the time, indoors and outdoors, left is worse than the right side but both drip.

I work outdoors a couple days a week and my customers comment on my sniffing all year round.

Funny thing is I have not had a cold in 4 or 5 years.

I did first see a Dr about it a couple of years ago and was prescribed Mometasone Furoate nasal spray, I stuck with it but it seemed to irritate my nasal lining even more.

I waited several months to see a ENT Dr who very helpful. Saw him in August 2025. He prescribed me Clarithromycin 250 twice a day for 4 weeks and Feofenadine antihistamine 100 mg once a day and took a swab which was sent to microbiology.

Also a nasal irrigation (not allowed to post the word beginning with “d”) for 6 weeks. No improvement.

I never did hear anything after that. It is difficult to get a Dr appointment but managed to get an out of hours one a couple of weeks back, she was very understanding and told me there is now a 2 year wait for ENT. She chased the letter I had from last year.

Thanks to that I have been notified that I have a telephone appointment next week, I am worried about it as I find it difficult to communicate on the phone and really do not want to try anymore sprays or antibiotics. I do have 2 friends that also had this problem years ago and Cauterisation cured it.

Is Cauterisation still used these days to stop a nasal drip?

I wonder if I get nowhere with this telephone appointment, should I see how much Cauterisation costs privately?