My ENT does not believe that irrigation reaches the frontal sinuses
usually, if the anatomy hasn't been changed with surgery. To test the
hypothesis, he once irrigated, and then valsalvaed--bore down against a
held breath--to try and force the irrigation fluid into his frontals.
He reports that he triggered an infection fairly promptly.
 The reason he likes the neti is that he feels the position increases
ethmoid irrigation.
 A lot of the reason irrigation "works" is because it increases
ciliary action, removes crusts and dilutes mucous. Only some of the
action is direct flushing. That's my understanding of it.
Judy

Funny that you mention something like that...

1) Where exactly is the ethmoid?

2) While irrigating my sinusis, I do get some of the solution trapped
in the there somewhere - just today, a few hours after irrigating, I
was at a large "bricolage" store, was looking at the specs some
aluminum bars, tilted my head to the right, in order to read a label
vertically, and here comes some solution pouring down my nose :-()

While this convinced me I'm probably doing a thorough job irrigating,
I also started wondering if this traped solution could be helping the
"bad guys" make me fell bad - I've had to postpone my bicycle rides
several times in the last few days, because of poor sinus health ...

Sugestions?

thanks,
jbr

But if the openings to the frontals and spenoids aren't big enough,
then they aren't going to drain properly no matter what you do!!!  I
just recently found out  that is/was at least part of my problem.  I
had surgery a little over a week ago to open them up.  Evidently a
sphenoid infection that I had over 12 years ago (probably was longer
than that because of the symptoms I was having even several years
before then, but that was when I had  my first CT scan and it showed up
there;  I wasn't even treated for it!!) has been simmering all  of
these years.  It's too early to tell if this is going to work (don't
know how much damage has been done from all the years if inflammation
and mold exposure), and I will report my progress later.  I had been
thinking it was my ethmoids because of the severe pain deep behind my
nose, but then that's where the sphenoids are too.  This has been so
frustrating, as I am sure you all know.  It seems as if it's not
obvious from endoscopy (which mainly shows the maxillaries and
ethmoids) or careful examination of CT scans and an ENT who is astute
enough to listen to symptoms and put it all together, that you are just
"up the creek without a  paddle!!"  I have had many ENTs that have told
me they could see all of the sinuses through enodscopy and since most
of the time I wasn't draining when they did the exams (it was all
backed up in the frontals and sphenoids), they declared me sinus free!!
One even told me he might as well be treating me for pain in my knee
that didn't exist.  On that particular visit I was in so much pain that
I had to lie down in the back seat of the car to get there and then go
to the ER and get a shot of morphine.   The ENT who did my surgery said
that there was no way they could have seen into my frontal and sphenoid
sinuses.  The right sphenoid was so blocked he had trouble finding it.
He also said that CTs do not always correlate with symtpoms.  Some
people's CT scans can look awful, but have very few symptoms and vice
versa.  This is not intended to be a slam against you,  Dr. Grossan
because you hasve been extremely helpful on many occasions.  It just
seemed like a good place to vent my frustrations and hopefully maybe
help someone else.

Kathw