Sure. It’s a guideline not a hard rule. Doctors have wide latitude. A doctor could give you antibiotics whenever they want. The doctor didn’t do anything wrong

Sure. It’s a guideline not a hard rule. Doctors have wide latitude. A doctor could give you antibiotics whenever they want. The doctor didn’t do anything wrong by asking you to wait a few days. In addition to residency, my wife is fellowship trained, she’s who PCPs end up sending patients to. She’s basically level 2 tech support (an ENT would be level 3 for this particular problem). She sees the results of this stuff all the time. And the majority of PCPs vastly overprescribe antibiotics for sinus infections. The vast majority of patients who come in saying they have a sinus infection and asking for antibiotics are wrong. Doctors are tasked with antibiotic stewardship, but people complain on review sites when they don’t get what they want, so many of them just do it.