Inhalers are the most common method of treatment of asthma. Through the use of inhaler we can take the medicine directly anywhere and anytime. There are variety of inhalers are available in the market for helping asthmatic patients. Inhalers are the hand-held device which is used to deliver the medicine directly to the lungs. Basically there are two types of inhalers

Dry Powder Inhaler : It is breath-activated inhaler so easy to use. You just have to inhale the medicine. This depend on your inhaling effort(breathe quickly) to activate the flow of medicine. In Dry powder inhaler(DPI), there comes some capsules and a rotating device. First the capsule is placed in the rotating device and making a rotation makes capsule break and medicine is spread away. Then keeping the face straight, the medicine is inhaled through the device. These types of inhalers are to be loaded each time like Inhalator, Spinhaler, Rotahaler while some other DPI inhalers comes with some fixed amount of doses like Turbuhaler, Accuhaler. Spacers shouldn’t be used with dry powder inhalers.

Metered Dose Inhalers : Metered dose inhaler is the most common and fastest way of taking asthma medicine. There are five parts to an inhaler: your medication, the propellant, the canister, the metering valve and the mouthpiece. The propellant is used to force the measured dose, pressurized canister contains the medicine, and metering valve dispense the correct volume of medicine out from the inhaler and taken from the mouthpiece. Generally these types of inhalers requires a spacer which is a tube shaped device that is attached to the inhaler. This gives you some extra time so that you can inhale slowly. It also reduces the deposition of medicine on the throat and increase the amount of dose reaching the lungs.

Some of the asthma medications that are taken from inhalers are :

• Short-acting bronchodilators :includes albuterol (Proventil, Ventolin) and pirbuterol (Maxair)
• Long-acting bronchodilators : include salmeterol (Serevent) and formoterol (Foradil)
• Cromolyn : include nonsteroidal medications
• Corticosteroids : include beclomethasone dipropionate (Qvar), fluticasone (Flovent), budesonide (Pulmicort), triamcinolone acetonide (Azmacort) and flunisolide (Aerobid)

Before using the inhalers we should the complete instruction manual has to read carefully. And every time before taking the dose inhaler should be shake properly. If you are unable to use inhaler then nebulizer may be an option. In this medicine is converted into a mist and delivered through a mask on mouth and nose.