Ba-doom-tssssssssssssss
I use one occasionally, and have to struggle not to blow my nose afterward. If I do, I get ringing in at least one ear for the next couple of days, if not a full-blown ear infection.
Like others, I find it soothing to use but the relief is extremely short-lived. It’s mainly good for clearing things out if I’ve been in very dry conditions, or have a cold.
I had a squeezy bottle (got lost in the last move) that worked pretty well (got it off drugstore.com). I just bent over the sink with it and because it was squeezy, there was some pressure behind the water so you didn’t have to learn how to “inhale” it. It wasn’t that messy but sure was a weird sensation using it. I was in a super dry climate and used it to prevent the nosebleeds that everyone else was getting. It seemed to work.
I have the NeilMed squeeze bottle (and buy the salt packets 'cause I’m lazy 
) I have crappy sinuses and it doesn’t really help with that, but I tend to get bad nosebleeds in the winter when the heat is on all the time and the irrigation really helps with that.
I also use it year round after doing yardwork or something that kicks up a lot of dust, or on Allergies from Hell days to wash the pollen out.
No suction is needed with a neti pot. Gravity does all the work.
It’s moderately horrible, IME, but it makes enough of a difference that I endure it when I feel sinus troubles coming on, or have a cold. The trick is to get the salinity and temperature right, that helps a lot to make it bearable.
I have not yet found the formula that prevents my spouse from being grossed out by the process. I forbid him from being in the room.
I rarely get instant relief (that is, where I immediately feel like I’m less blocked up or inflamed). But it seems to help my body (and/or whatever medicine I’m taking) get ahead of it. I used to be a frequent sufferer of sinus infections, and now I have far fewer, and it’s been years since I had one that I wasn’t able to knock back myself (without seeing a doctor).
I use it sometimes, but I generally do not get a drastic improvement.
I also get the water-coming-out-of-nose-if-bend-over. Solution, bend over and blow your nose after you finish with the neti pot.
I use the squeezy bottle “modern” version some. When I have a cold, congested or having allergies. When my nose is working fine I don’t remember to use it.
My wife has allergies and it certainly helps when the allergies are acting up.
My mother in law visiting from China loves it and we just sent her a neti care package.
I lurrrves my neti pot! My ranking of inventions: neti, fire, wheel, sliced bread …
I use mine nightly. It has reduced my snoring and helps keep my allergic symptoms under control - in combination with daily meds and shots, and sinus surgery a couple of years ago. If I stop any of these things from my routine, my allergies and sleeping are worse. I had a cold recently, the first in a long time since I started using the neti pot, and using the neti pot 3-4 times a day helped my symptoms enormously. Instead of seven days of misery I had four days of discomfort. I used to get a lot of colds and sinus infections before I started using neti, now they are rare.
When my nose is stuffed and I wish I had a magic vacuum cleaner to suck out all the snot, I use my neti pot and within 20 minutes I can breathe free! The neti pot is that magic vacuum cleaner.
I always assumed that the reason humans had two nostrils was that no more than one nostril worked at any given time. I could count on my hands the number of days in my life I could breathe through both nostrils. Seriously, I think there was one day in my high school years where both nostrils worked at once. That is until I started using my neti pot in my late 40s. The sinus surgery helped with that also, but neti does not require a trained medical professional.
I use a “rhino horn” style neti pot, but I’ve used other designs in the past. I use a jar of neti pot salt - it’s pure salt finely ground. I get salt refills in plastic zip-lip bags (cheaper shipping). I don’t use buffers, but I have used the pre-mixed packets on a recent trip and that worked out fine. I have my “works” set up in my bathroom: jar of neti salt, my neti pot, a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, a 1 cup dry measure, and a butter knife I use as a stirrer. It took some getting used to, but the neti has helped so much I don’t dare travel without it.
Other recent neti threads I’ve participated in, or been mentioned in:
I cannot thank Qadgop the Mercotan enough for recommending neti on this board.
I could never quite get the hang of it. But I have horrid sinuses.
I finally ended up having surgery, and the recovery involved using aerosol saline spray, (available at the drugstore), almost constantly, in the beginning. (Always take care to sterilize the tip, after each use, to avoid reinfection!) If you have really bad sinuses, they may be misshappened, and a neti pot will be tough going. But this spray is easy peasy, with the same result.
My surgeon also recommended apple cider vinegar, (1/2 ounce, twice a day, brush your teeth after). He told me, as it’s fermented with the skins on, there is a concentration of something that thins mucus.
After a lifetime, of over the counter meds, with these two simple things, I was able to throw off sinusitis, (terribly difficult to clear once you have it). I could have saved a small fortune, if I’d known earlier!
Inspired by this thread (and the ones linked in the above posts), I made a feeble and unsuccessful attempt to flush out my sinuses last night. I squirted a saline solution in one nostril, but it only ran out the same nostril and didn’t go anywhere else. Am I doing it wrong? Or could I possibly have some weird blockage that keeps the water from going further?
It takes a while to get used to. You might be hitting inflammation, and water goes through boogies, but not inflammation. If it’s that blocked, go with the other nostril.
I love my neti. I’m hard core about it, I suck the saline way back in to my nasal passage, and I’ve been known to hit neti gold. Nothing feels better that hacking out a prune sized boogie in to the shower drain. Sounds nasty, but get back to me once you’ve done it once with a cold. It doesn’t bug me when it runs down the back of my nasal passage in to my throat. I just block it and drain it out of my mouth. Snoring? Gone. Repeated ear infections? Gone. Constant stuffed up nose? Gone.
Does anyone have the thread where Qadgop gave the recipe for his neti pot solution? I think it was kosher salt and baking soda, but I don’t know the amounts of each and the amount of water.
StG
What you’re making is hypertonic saline (salt for the saline, buffered by baking soda)
Here is one recipe
Thanks for the suggestion to do it in the shower. Much better than leaning over the sink. I am a convert.
I recently saw an ENT specialist who gave a sample nasal irrigation bottle. Here’s how my experience went:
squirt**SNORTACKPTHBTHBTPTHBHTBPTOOI!HACKCOUGHpthbthtbhtbthHACKPTOOOOIouch*
Won’t be doing that again anytime soon.
I forgot to mention that I used saline nasal sprays as a “gateway drug”, and it all took some getting used to. The results are sooooo worth it for me. You milage may vary a lot.
It will help you immensely.
Uh, no. Not the tiniest bit. Not even what doctors call “discomfort” but actually is pain. Nothing at all.
No, never.
I am messy and uncoordinated, sometimes i spill it on my shirt. Using it in the shower seems like a great idea actually.
Man up and do it already!
This should probably be amended slightly to say if it does hurt, you’re doing it wrong. If the water is too hot or too cold, or the solution has too much or too little salt, it can indeed sting.
With the correct temperature and salinity (I personally don’t usually bother with the baking soda) it should be painless.
I will just point out a (somewhat random) side benefit I experienced: I found that after using a neti pot regularly for a while, I was much more comfortable while snorkeling.