How to Get Rid of a Clogged Up Nose

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. David Hill and today we're going to be talking about how to get rid of a clogged up nose. Now to answer that question, you have to ask why is the nose clogged up in the first place. In some cases it's something pretty obvious like a foreign body in the nose are recently had to help remove a bead from a four year old's nose. So that's pretty straight forward but it does help to look up the nose and see if there's in there. A very common reason for stuffed up nose especially in the spring and fall is allergies or what we call allergic rhinitis. Now the hallmark of allergies is itching. So you'll often have a lot of itching in the nose, itching of the eyes; watery drainage from the nose and eyes; lots of sneezing; congestion. There are medicines that you can get over the counter to treat allergies; Cetirizine or Zyrtec is one; Loratodine or Claritin is another one and there are various generic forms of all those. The Loratodine is a little less sedating, but different anti-histamines work better or worse for different people. So just as one didn't work doesn't mean the other won't be helpful. Your doctor can prescribe some powerful medicines usually in the form of a steroid nasal spray that you squirt up the nose once a day. These sprays don't work quickly, that takes several days to kick in; so you don't want to get too impatient if you started one of these. Now another common reason to have stuffed up nose is a cold or Viral Rhinosinusitis we called; just a viral infection of the nose and sinuses and the best way to unclog that especially in babies and children is to use a little bit of nasal salient drops. Now you can make this up with half teaspoon of salt and a cup of water in your own house or you can buy a commercial preparation. For babies, you drop a couple of drops into the nose then use a little blue or red suction bulb you got from the hospital or the drugstore and go straight back just a, just a couple of millimeters really into the nose and suck that stuff out; that will give them some relief. For larger kids and adults, you can achieve a similar effect through an instrument called a Neti Pot that is hundreds or thousands of years old and commonly use in Eastern or Ayurvedic medication medicine. There are also over the counter decongestant sprays that you can buy along the lines of Afrin. But you want to be really careful with these sprays; you never want to use them more than two or three days in a row because after you've been using them for awhile the nose gets used to them and when you try to stop using them, wooh, swells right back up. So make a hash mark on the bottle or keep a calendar and know that if you've gotten to two or three days of use, it's time to stop it. And honestly if you notice it's still clogged up that long, you probably need to see your doctor. Now there are some alarming signs if you develop a fever over about a hundred two degrees and the runny nose goes on more than ten to fourteen days or if you have a fever that lasts more than four days or goes away and then comes back greater than twenty four hours later, does it all reasons to suspect a bacterial infection of the sinuses and you really ought to see your doctor for those. Talking about how to clear up a clogged up nose, I am Dr. David Hill."