Asthma – Inhaler Medication

Transcript

“So proper use of inhaler medication is actually very important for long-term asthma management, especially if you’re someone with more moderate to severe form of asthma. It’s very important and critical to know the difference between a short acting, as-needed inhaler versus a maintenance inhaler. So what exactly are the differences? Well, a short acting inhaler provides pretty instant relief when you use it, the purpose of these inhalers is to be used on an as-needed basis, or sometimes in patients with more exercise induced asthma, where they can use the short acting inhaler a couple of minutes before exercising, to minimize any symptoms that they may develop. The key, again, for short acting inhalers, is you as the patient, you control how often you need to use them. You’re in charge. This differs from maintenance inhalers, which are usually prescribed for patients with more moderate, sometimes even mild persistent, asthmatics.

So a maintenance inhaler can include a single medication such as a inhaled steroid versus dual medications. And now we’re even having triple therapy inhaler medications on the market. So the key to know for these maintenance inhalers is that they should be used on a scheduled basis, unlike the short acting inhalers, which are used on as needed basis. For maintenance inhalers, they’re usually used once or twice daily, depending on the exact inhaler. If these maintenance inhalers have an inhaled steroid or inhaled corticosteroid component, it’s important to wash your mouth, gargle your mouth while after use to minimize the risk of thrush. Again, these inhalers, the maintenance inhalers are to be used on scheduled basis. On top of this, the maintenance inhaler should not be used in emergent situations where you feel like you’re having an asthma attack. That’s when you want to stick with the short acting rescue inhaler that you have, to provide you with instantaneous relief.”