The mucous membranes have 0.9% salt. Therefore, the solution used in Rhino Horn should have 0.9% salt, i.e. 9 g per litre of water. The Rhino Horn contains 30 cl of water if you leave a few millimetres of air at the top so that you may be able to shake the Rhino Horn to dissolve the salt. You need 2.7 g of salt to get 30 cl of water to be isotonic/physiological solution. That is what the Rhino Spoon contains if you use fine-grained salt.

Rhino Horn Junior contains 21 cl of water and needs 1.9 g salt to become an isotonic solution. The Rhino Junior Spoon contains that if you use fine-grained salt.

Sea salt and Himalaya salt contains mainly NaCl (natrium-chloride) together with very small amounts of a lot of other chemicals. Many people consider these other chemicals as essential to get into your body to stay healthy in a natural way. That may very well be true, but since the salt used in the Rhino Horn does not enter the body through the mucous membranes, it has no relevance to use with Rhino Horn. It is, though, not harmful to use sea salt or Himalaya salt. The only crucial issue with the salt is that it contains mainly (at least 99%) NaCl.

The salt should be as poor NaCl as possible. But ENT doctors tell us that it does not matter if the salt is iodised or non-iodised. Very small amounts of other chemicals than NaCl is neither needed nor important to avoid. In some countries, you are not able to buy non-iodised salt because of a legal requirement (e.g. Denmark, Finland).

Course-grained salt has much more air in between the grains. That means that the volume of the measuring spoon will contain less than the needed weight of salt to get the correct saline solution.

We do not want the water in the Rhino Horn to disturb the balance in the mucous membranes of nostrils and the nasal cavity. If you have no salt in your Rhino Horn solution, the water passing by the mucous membranes will remove some salt from them to seek to attain a balance between the water and the membranes. Similarly, if you have an excessive amount of salt in your Rhino Horn solution, the membranes will try to extract some salt from the water and increase the salt content beyond the normal physiological 0.9% level. For one or a few incidents, this is not crucial. But if you use Rhino Horn daily for many years, a wrong balance of salt would harm the mucous membranes.

If you have too little salt in your Rhino Horn solution, it may hurt when the water runs through your nose. If you have way too much salt in your solution, you may feel a pressure in your nose.

Some scientific investigations recommend a solution for nasal irrigation slightly above physiological saltwater. Our recommendation is to use the measuring spoon for salt application to get a physiologically correct solution.

This question is an important evaluation. You should feel sure that the tap water is not contaminated before you pour it directly into your Rhino Horn. Especially the hot water may be insecure because of old water heaters or pipes. If in doubt, you should boil clean drinking water for a minute or two, and then let it cool down to body temperature.

It is not necessary to use distilled water. Ordinary clean freshwater is good.

You may have safe cold water in the Rhino Horn and heat it in a microwave oven. Depending on the effect of the oven, you may experiment to know how long time the Rhino Horn and the water need to stay in the microwave oven to get it to body temperature – probably two to three minutes.

This problem is an ordinary beginner’s mistake. The cause is a slightly wrong angle of the head. If your chin points too much forward, you tilt your head backwards, and in this way, the water will seek backwards in the nasal cavity and into your throat. Put your chin a little closer to your chest, and the problem disappears.

No, it is not dangerous at all.

Nasal irrigation with the Rhino Horn should be nice and pleasant, not uncomfortable, and it should not hurt. The most probable cause is an inadequate quality of the water. You may have the water too hot. That is unpleasant. You may have the water too cold. That is unpleasant too. You might have too much salt in the solution or too little salt. With the right temperature and the right amount of salt, nasal cleansing with Rhino Horn should be comfortable and pleasant.

If you have lost your measuring spoon, contact us at post@somamed.com, and we shall make sure that you receive a new one. We shall send you a measuring spoon without any further cost than postage.

The water may enter the sinuses on the sides of the nose during nasal cleansing. That may be beneficial because the sinuses get cleansed and opened up. It is important, though, that you are careful with the emptying of your nose afterwards by bending forward and downward and gently blowing through your nose while moving your head in different directions (see the user instructions about emptying your nose after nasal cleansing). It is the position rather than the blowing that will get the water out.

The fine thing about Rhino Horn as a medical device is that it is safe and natural. It plays along with the body. For normal hygiene and preventional/prophylactic ends, using Rhino Horn once a day will be fine. You may use Rhino Horn every day for many years without any problem. Many people choose to use Rhino Horn every day in periods of need and have a break until one feels an urge to take it up again.

If you are in a situation with disturbing nuisances, e.g. having a heavy cold or sinusitis, being in the middle of a pollen season giving you trouble, or other situations like that, you may use Rhino Horn several times a day. There is no absolute limit. With heavy cold or sinusitis, some people use Rhino Horn three-four times after one another with a better result than if done only once.

No, not at all. It is very important to blow your nose gently when emptying it. You may get sounds from the ear, as described in the previous answer. But more severely, you may blow water from the back of your mouth into the middle ear. That is not good. Water in the middle ear tends to cause middle ear inflammation, and you should avoid that, of course.

I have described the reason for the pressure to occur in the ear in the two previous answers. If the mucous membranes of the mouth-ear-canal are swollen, you may not be able to balance the pressure on either side of the eardrum. This problem is similar to having pressure in the ear if you are having a cold while flying. Be careful not to blow any extra air into the middle ear.

In this way, you make sure that remaining water in your nose and your sinuses will come out. If you do not do this, you may be surprised if you later that day bend down to pick up something and experience water running out of your nose. In a cold environment, you should avoid having water or too much humidity in your nose.

Yes, if you prefer using a dishwasher, Rhino Horn is dishwasher safe.

It is not necessary to use soap for cleaning your Rhino Horn. If you do use soap, you should avoid pine oil-based soap. If you let your Rhino Horn soak in a solution with pine oil-based soap, the surface may get blisters or bubbles.

Cleaning your Rhino Horn in boiling water for two-three minutes is safe and killing all bacteria and virus. We recommend this cleaning method if several people are using the same Rhino Horn after one another.

Even sterilising equipment is safe for Rhino Horn. The material may become a little soft for a short time afterwards. But in a few minutes, it will become hard as it normally is.

Doctors recommend that Rhino Horn is as personal a device as a toothbrush. If more people are to use the same Rhino Horn after one another, you need to cleanse it by having it in boiling water for some minutes before the next person uses it.

The only risks associated with the use of Rhino Horn come from the blowing the nose empty after the cleansing procedure. If you blow too strongly, you may blow air or water into the middle ear through the mouth-ear-canal (the Eustachian canal). This situation is unpleasant. In the worst cases, you may cause middle ear inflammation by blowing water into the middle ear. It is very easy to avoid this, simply by blowing gently through your nose when you are emptying it.

Along with this information, we need to add that we have received reports from doctors and physiotherapists at a large hospital in Bordeaux, France, saying that children with frequent middle ear inflammation reduce their frequency by using Rhino Horn. They were the direct inspiration that we developed our Rhino Horn Junior.

Rhino Horn is being produced under the strict requirements set up in the ISO 13485:2017 certificate for the production of medical devices.

Rhino Horn may safely be exposed to temperatures up to 80^o C/176^o F for long periods. For a shorter period, it may be exposed to temperatures up to 300^o C/572^o F.

You may use Rhino Horn every day for many years without any problem. The material in Rhino Horn, pure PolyEthylene High Density (PEHD) will last for decades.

Rhino Horn Junior is 2/3 the size of our adult blue and red Rhino Horn. It is designed to fit better into a child’s nostril. The Junior Spoon is adjusted to make the saline solution physiological. The volume of water is 21 cl (if you leave a few milimetres of air at the top to be able to shake the RH Junior to dissolve the salt), and the Junior Spoon contains 1.9 g of fine-grained kitchen or sea salt.