Neti Pots can help Chronic Sinusitis

Nasal Saline irrigation and Neti Pots can help Chronic Sinusitis. This years Indiana Allergy Season in Indiana is worse than ever. If you live in Carmel, Westfield, Fishers, Noblesville or Fort Wayne you may also be exposed to high levels of Ozone making things worse. This year is proving to be one of the worst on record.  If you suffer from allergies, the high pollen counts and poor air-quality can play havoc on the sinuses.  Not doing enough for your chronic sinus condition can then lead to chronic swelling of the nasal mucosa which can then lead to chronic sinusitis symptoms and chronic infections.  

If you want to explore an entirely non-medicated option that may help your chronic sinusitis symptoms, think about using nasal saline. It’s easy! In addition to allergy medications, the use of sinus rinses can greatly improve sinus symptoms during these periods of high pollen counts.  Sinus rinsing has several benefits, including directly removing irritating pollen still present on the surface of the nasal mucosa as well as thinning the mucous and helping it to clear the nose more quickly.

If you want to try to see if Neti Pots can help chronic sinusitis for you, do it the right way and do it safely. With this in mind the CDC has recently release a report with recommendations on the safe use of Sinus Rinse devices and Neti Pots.  The primary recommendations highlight the type of water that can safely be used in the sinus rinse.  The CDC recommends either boiling the water, filtering the water using a bacterial filter smaller than one micron, buying sterile/distilled water or using a disinfectant in the  water.

These recommendations stem from recent reports of Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis contracted from tap water use in sinus rinse devices.  More recently there have also been reports of mycobacterial chronic sinus infections contracted while using tap water in the sinus rinse.

The moral of this story is – sinus rinsing can be of great benefit to you this year if your sinus and allergy complaints are worse than normal. Just be careful how you mix the solution!

more information can be found at this link:

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/sinus-rinsing.html

Best Strategies

So your best things to try when it comes to reverse nasal and sinus inflammation to stop chronic sinusitis is to follow this effective strategy:

• Identify and avoid your triggers in your home, work and where you play.
• Identify and avoid any foods that may be triggering inflammation.
• Start nasal saline spray several times a day and especially after you do a triggering activity.  This may help wash out the things in your nose that are making you sick.
• For you over-achievers out there try using nasal saline irrigation once or twice a day until your symptoms improve.  If you have a dirty job or dirty hobbies this one can be a very effective approach to feeling better and it does not involve extra medication use.  Many patients like that.
• Move on to medication trials when saline does not work.  If you are having nasal congestion, headache, facial pain and pressure or thick mucus/post-nasal drainage your best option is to do a trial of nasal steroid sprays.  As mentioned, these have been shown to be effective at reversing nasal sinus inflammation and may give you good relief.  Nasal steroids are also a good option to control allergy when you can’t find an oral antihistamine that works without side effects.
• If you are having itching or watering of the eyes, nose or throat or having excessive clear nasal drainage you should try using an oral antihistamine to control symptoms.  The better you control your allergies the better you will control that root cause of your sinus symptoms… Inflammation!

What to do if all these things don’t help?

When medications fail that’s when you want to consider searching for a sinus specialist near me on google.  We are out there and we are here to help.  Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information or to schedule and appointment for a sinuplasty evaluation.

Click HERE if you want to start an immediate discussion with me about your nasal sinus symptoms and options for care.

I sincerely hope you found this article helpful.  Have a great day!

Dr. B