How Do Nasal Sprays Work?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. David Hill and today we're going to be talking about how nasal sprays work. Now, nasal sprays are a bunch of different kinds of medicines and the only thing that they really have in common is they all come in a bottle with a little tip that you stick up the nose. You usually push it; some have a propellant in them and the spray comes out. The idea is to coat the nose with this spray. So, you want to kind of angle it up into the nose, tip over, close the side you're not using and squirt. And then, usually, you're going to do that on the other side. However, in using nasal sprays, it's important to know what kind of spray you're using and what it's for. The simplest type of nasal spray is just plain, normal saline, that's salt water that you can put in the nose to moisturize it or to improve the symptoms of sinusitis or a cold, especially in babies. You might give that in the form of drops, for example. You can use all the nasal spray you want, if it's saline, it's not going to harm anything at all. So, use it to your heart's content. Another type of nasal spray that you can purchase over the counter is a nasal decongestant, oxymetazoline, is one type, phenylephrine is another. These nasal sprays decrease the swelling inside the nose by causing the blood vessels to shrink. People usually use them when they have a cold. But here is the key, if you use them more than two to three days in a row, the nose gets used to them. The blood vessels no longer shrink very much but when you stop using them, boy, do they swell. The swelling gets even worse than it was before. So, if you're using one of these over-the-counter nose sprays for congestion, make hash marks on the bottle or mark it on the calendar, make sure that after that third day, you don't go for that bottle again or you're going to be really sorry. Now, another category of nasal sprays is used to treat allergies, these are all given by prescription and some examples are beclomethasone, fluticasone and mometasone, these are all corticosteroids that help reduce the inflammation from allergies. And, unlike the sprays that you use for congestion, they don't work quickly at all, they actually work over a period of three to five days or even a week and you really need to use them every day during allergy season to get the best effects. People who use them one day and not the next get frustrated, they say why isn't this medicine working? It's cause you're not using it enough; just the opposite of the decongestant nasal sprays. So, talking about nasal sprays and how they work, I'm Dr. David Hill."