Effective Long-Term Asthma Attack Control
Knowing how to use Flovent inhaler is fairly simple and shouldn’t be a challenge for most people. The inhaler is preloaded with blister packs that contain measured doses of this effective asthma medication. The appeal of this is of course that you don’t need to do any type of loading on your own, and you get your Flovent inhaler dosage each time by simply placing the dispenser end of the inhaler in your mouth and pressing down on the activator. Then one individual dose of the medication will be released.
One thing you do need to be mindful of is to shake the inhaler vigorously for 5 seconds before dispensing one dose for yourself. Your physician will likely instruct you to use your Flovent inhaler twice a day and in the morning and evening at the same time. It is also recommended that after taking a dose you gargle and rinse your mouth with water. This is to prevent irritation and to prevent the chance of a fungal infection (thrush) in the mouth.
You will also need to clean your Flovent inhaler regularly and as directed, and use the display indicator on the unit that lets you know how many Flovent inhaler dosages are remaining. It may also be helpful to know that a Flovent Inhaler is different from a Flovent Diskus. A Flovent inhaler may be listed as a Flovent HFA, and one of the aspects of using it that may be difficult for some people is the hand-breath coordination that is required to dispense each dose properly so that it can be inhaled the right way and in full.
A Flovent Diskus may be a better choice if that is a challenge for someone, but there are different usage guidelines for this product in comparison to those mentioned here for the Flovent Inhaler (HFA). The standard Flovent inhaler dosage is 88mcg twice a day for adults, but for the Diskus it is 100mcg twice daily. Again, however, the standard guideline for any medication is to take it exactly as prescribed by your physician and as it’s written in the prescription.
Side Effects
Most people do not experience any type of side effects when using a Flovent Inhaler and being in the know as to use a Flovent inhaler is all that’s needed. However, side effects from Flovent and the active ingredient in it (fluticasone) may include:
- Weakness, feelings of tiredness, nausea, or vomiting
- Wheezing, choking, or breathing problems
- Worsening of asthma symptoms
- Blurred or tunnel vision, eye pain, or seeing halos around light sources
- Problems with the liver, and this can be seen as upper stomach pain, appetite loss, clay-colored stools, dark urine, or jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes)
- blood vessel inflammation seen as fever, cough, stomach pain, weight loss, skin rash, severe tingling, chest pain, or localized numbness
One last thing to mention is that fluticasone – the active ingredient in a Flovent inhaler – can have affects on a child’s growth. This is the largest part of the reason why use of them is usually not advised by any family physician.
