Battle of the Nasal Washes

Technique #2: Squeeze Bottle

Kellie Gentry, 28, relies on a nasal rinse with a squeeze bottle to keep her sinuses clear, and it is a proven method.

"It gets to the sinuses as well as you're going to get," said Levy of the Osher Clinical Center. "To me the gut feeling is I'm now draining better. I feel less irritated."

Watch a video demonstrating nasal irrigation using a squeeze bottle.

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Rinsing with squeeze bottles is a fast, cheap and easy way to clear nasal passages and reduce the effects of a cold or an allergy as well as the need for medications. Packs like Gentry's, complete with prepared salt mixes, are available at almost any drugstore or supermarket.

And squeeze bottles are another form of positive pressure irrigation. The Laryngoscope study found that positive pressure irrigation is particularly effective at clearing the drainage areas for the ethmoid sinus regions by the bridge of the nose and the maxillary sinus regions on either side of the nose.

Negative pressure irrigation -- water sniffed up from a cupped hand -- was comparable to positive irrigation, according to the study, although it did not distribute the solution as evenly.

But saline nasal rinses can be uncomfortable unless you get the technique down.

Dr. Sezelle Gereau Haddon, assistant professor and clinical instructor of pediatric otolaryngology at Children's Hospital of New York, recommends a technique for using squeeze bottles that involves bending forward and panting "like a puppy" to keep the palate elevated and close off the back of the nose so the rinse water does not flow down the throat.

"All this gunk kind of comes out your nose," which clears out the area where many of the major sinus cavities drain, said Haddon.

And for those who are still wary of shooting water into the nose, Levy has some reassuring words:

"Water is not going to go into the brain, even if you try."