The No Tech Lo Tech Nasal Spray
The No Tech Lo Tech Nasal Spray
If you go to the store to buy a salt water spray, you will find a dizzying number of different strategies to try to get the saline into the nose. If the nose is really congested then it can be challenging to get the saline into the nose in the first place.
We have developed a very “low tech” tactic to getting the saline nasal solution into the nose: use the hand. You may read in some places that sniffing from the hand is not effective. I can assure you that these people don’t know what they are talking about. A big part of the uncertainty is that they often tell you to try to sniff up one nostril at a time. This does two things that are not helpful. First of all you have a harder time getting a effecitve mixture of nasal saline and air when you try to sniff up one side at a time. Second of all you miss getting the generous flow of the nasal saline into the nasopharynx because it didn’t go up both sides at the same time.
The key is sniffing up both nostrils at the same time. The second important fact to understand is that the nose is always lower than the mouth when you’re doing the sniffing. This makes sure that the nasal solution goes up both sides of the nose and into the nasopharynx which is the area of the throat behind the nose. This is a very important goal but unfortunately missed by most of the advice from sites that are trying to tell you how to use the nasal saline solution.
For many years our patients have been very succssfully using this practice. It is low tech and it is very effective, particularly when used with the saline nasal soltuion called “Rhinosnort”.
So if you follow these instructions you will be successful.