How to Avoid Pain, Pressure, and Popping Discomfort in Your Ears When Using a Neti Pot

If you're new to using neti pots to clean your nasal passages and sinuses, you've probably done some preliminary research on how to properly use a neti pot (http://www.ehow.com/how_4603621_use-neti-pot.html). BUT one thing that most instructions don't mention is the uncomfortable feeling you can get in your ears if you make a couple of minor mistakes. Here's a few ways to keep your ears AND sinuses happy when using your neti pot.

Instructions

1. Keep your mouth open. If you close your mouth, liquid will run down your throat (instead of out of your opposite nostril), and your ears will pop.

2. Resist the urge to swallow. When you begin irrigating your sinuses with your neti pot, keep your mouth open, and keep breathing through your mouth the entire time. While breathing, take care to keep your throat completely open. Because it's a foreign feeling, you might be nervous, and you'll experience a natural desire to swallow. Even if you don't fully swallow, closing off your throat will cause a feeling of "wet pressure" in your ears. Keeping the air continually moving through your throat with inhalation and exhalation will prevent this.

3. Blow your nose properly. After you've finished irrigating your sinuses with the neti pot, you will need to blow the mucus from your nostrils. When you finish irrigating your left nostril, you'll need to blow your nose. Do not block your right nostril with your finger or Kleenex. When you blow, you must have both nostrils open (even if you haven't irrigated one of them yet). Blocking one nostril will result in some of the residual water to back up into your ears. This is uncomfortable and sometimes painful.

Tips & Warnings

• Practice. If you forget these things the first time (or first few times) you've irrigated your sinuses with your neti pot, just keep trying. You'll get the hang of it!