Sinus Rinse Using Nasal Irrigation- What’s
the Best Technique?
Portions of this article come from the Health Solutions web site and are reprinted with permission.
|
There are several sinus rinse techniques that can be utilized for sinus irrigation. This article gives a short summary of a scientific study that compared the various sinus rinse options. I’ll provide some comments after each method is discussed where I’ve had personal experience. If you wish to jump to the conclusion, just scroll down to the bottom of the article. Walt Ballenberger "Positive pressure irrigation (Original Sinus Irrigator®) retains a larger volume of solution and irrigated the sinuses more consistently than other methods. Positive |
pressure irrigation distributes saline solution reliably to the ethmoid and maxillary sinuses and is distributed to the bilateral maxillary sinuses in the majority of all subjects."
W.B. comment- I personally use this technique by employing a WaterPik machine with a nasal adaptor to do my sinus rinse and nasal irrigation each day. Both this and the Original Sinus Irrigator® provide a low pressure stream of saline solution. I normally do this once or twice a day, but lately twice a day seems to work best. I’ll do one sinus rinse in the morning and then another about an hour before bed. This approach gives me a thorough sinus rinse, cleans my nose, and controls my sinus problems rather well.
"Negative pressure irrigation (inhaled or "sniffed" saline) Negative pressure irrigation is the simplest least expensive irrigation method and is maintenance free, However, delivery with this method is difficult to control and has the disadvantage of preferentially irrigating the side of the nasal cavity. It tends to irrigate one maxillary sinus or the other but not both."
W.B. comment- After getting used to the WaterPik and adaptor for accomplishing my daily sinus rinse, it seems intuitive that any method of sniffing or inhaling a saline solution would be inferior. Some years ago I did try using a neti pot, and I believe that method would qualify as a negative pressure sinus rinse. This didn’t help me very much at all. Besides being a mess and causing me to get wet, it just wan’t very effective, although some people have told me a neti pot works for them. I personally think they would have better results with a positive pressure sinus rinse system, like the WaterPik I use, or the Original Sinus Irrigator®.
"Nebulizer: The system uses technology previously applied to oral nebulizing devices for delivery of drugs to the bronchopulmonary system. It is comfortable and easy to use but is expensive, time intensive requiring nearly 10 minutes per treatment. Of the three treatment methods, the nebulizer gave the poorest results. Saline distribution was the lowest and the nebulizer method did not distribute the solution reliably."
A nebulizer is a device that turns a liquid into very fine drops such that it is like a mist. I’ve never tried this, but it looks from the study results that this technique is not effective as a sinus rinse or irrigation system. The machine is also expensive, so it would not be advisable to purchase one for addressing sinus problems. Perhaps nebulizers work better for dispensing other medications.
The conclusion of the study comparing the three sinus rinse nasal irrigation systems is as follows: “Judged solely on the basis of solution distribution in the nasal sinuses, nasal irrigation is effective when either positive pressure or negative pressure irrigation is used but is ineffective when a nebulizer is used.” Laryngoscope, 112:1394-1398, 2002.