JP6565047B2 - Portable nasal washing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable nasal irrigation device configured to inject irrigation liquid into a nasal cavity at a predetermined pressure, and more particularly to a portable nasal irrigation device that can be easily used in a general home.

  Hand washing, face washing, and gargle are recommended when allergens such as pollen and pathogenic substances such as bacteria and viruses are likely to occur. For example, it has been said that allergens and pathogenic substances attached to the throat and skin can be removed to some extent by frequently washing hands, washing face, and gargle when returning from the home.

However, it was not possible to clean the nasopharynx near the boundary between the back of the nose and the throat by hand washing, face washing, and gargle alone. For this reason, allergic substances and pathogenic substances that have reached the nasopharynx may cause allergic symptoms and colds. If you go to otolaryngology etc., it is possible to clean the upper pharynx appropriately, but a method that can be easily practiced at home as well as hand washing and gargle has been desired.

  Therefore, in the prior art, there is a nasal wash bottle in which a nozzle having an alphabetical “J” shape is attached to an elastic bottle such as polyethylene resin, and the tip of the nozzle is inserted into the nasal cavity. There are nasal irrigation bottles and the like configured to perform nasal irrigation by pressing the bottle (see, for example, Patent Document 1). By using such a nasal cavity washing bottle, it has been said that foreign substances that have reached the nasopharynx can be washed.

Utility model registration No. 3199593

  However, if nasal irrigation is not used, it is difficult to inject the cleaning solution into the nasal cavity. When the bottle is pressed with hesitation, the cleaning solution does not reach the nasopharynx, but if it is pressed too much, the injection pressure of the cleaning solution is too strong to reach the ear, resulting in side effects such as otitis media. There is a risk of causing. Furthermore, since the injection pressure of the cleaning liquid varies depending on the residual amount of the cleaning liquid in the bottle, the inclination angle of the bottle, and the like, considerable habituation is required for proper nasal cleaning. Therefore, nasal washing tends to be avoided in ordinary households, and the current situation is that it has not taken root as much as hand washing, face washing, and gargle.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a portable nasal irrigation apparatus that can easily perform nasal irrigation even in general households.

  The portable nasal irrigation apparatus according to the present invention is configured to inject a cleaning liquid into a nasal cavity of a user at a predetermined pressure. The portable nasal cleaning apparatus includes at least a cleaning nozzle unit, a cleaning liquid storage unit, a cleaning liquid supply unit, an operation switch, and a control unit. The cleaning nozzle unit is configured to be able to inject a cleaning liquid into the user's nasal cavity. The nozzle has a large root diameter and tapers toward the tip so that it fits regardless of the size of the user's nasal cavity (for example, the tip has a generally conical shape or a generally polygonal pyramid shape) Is preferred.

  The cleaning liquid storage unit is configured to store the cleaning liquid. A typical example of the cleaning liquid storage unit is a cleaning liquid tank. The material constituting the cleaning liquid container does not necessarily have elasticity as in the prior art, and may be a rigid body. The cleaning liquid supply unit is configured to supply the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid storage unit to the cleaning nozzle unit at a predetermined pressure. As an example of the cleaning liquid supply unit, a configuration in which the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid storage unit is sucked by a motor-driven pump and is sent to the cleaning nozzle unit. Since the supply pressure of the cleaning liquid supply unit is determined by the pump pressure or the like, it is not affected by the strength of the pressing force applied to the cleaning liquid storage unit by the user.

  The operation switch is configured to receive an operation related to cleaning on or cleaning off from a user. When the operation switch is pressed by the user, the cleaning is turned on, and when the pressure is released, the cleaning is turned off, or the operation switch is slidable between the on position and the off position. It is possible to adopt a configuration that performs on / off determination according to the position.

  The control unit is configured to comprehensively control the operation of each unit described above. In particular, when the operation switch receives a cleaning-on operation from the user, the cleaning liquid supply unit is controlled to supply the cleaning liquid to the cleaning nozzle unit at a predetermined pressure.

  By adopting the above-described configuration, when the user operates the operation switch, the cleaning liquid is injected from the cleaning nozzle unit into the user's nasal cavity with a predetermined pressure. For this reason, it becomes possible to perform nasal irrigation with an appropriate pressure regardless of the inclination angle of the portable nasal irrigation device or the pressing force of the user. As a result, even users who are not accustomed to nasal washing do not have insufficient nasal washing due to insufficient injection pressure of the cleaning liquid, and excessive injection pressure of the cleaning liquid does not cause otitis media etc. It becomes possible to wash the nose with peace of mind.

  It is preferable that the above-described portable nasal washing device further includes a concentration sensor and a notification unit. The concentration sensor is configured to detect a salinity concentration of the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid storage unit. The notification unit is configured to notify that when the detection value of the density sensor is outside the predetermined range. For example, the detected salt concentration is not within a predetermined range (for example, 0.6 wt% to 1.2 wt%, etc.) from a concentration (0.9 wt%) that is generally said to be optimal for nasal washing. In this case, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of inconvenience that the user feels uncomfortable due to nasal washing.

  The portable nasal washing apparatus described above further includes a setting switch configured to accept a setting operation of the pressure of the cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning liquid storage unit to the cleaning nozzle unit, and the control unit corresponds to the setting content of the setting switch. It is preferable that the supply pressure by the cleaning liquid supply unit is adjusted. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to obtain an optimum injection pressure of the cleaning liquid for the user without performing an operation of finely adjusting the pressing force of the tank, and always an injection desired by the user. It is possible to perform nasal washing continuously with pressure.

  In the portable nasal washing apparatus described above, it is preferable that the cleaning liquid storage unit includes an external cleaning liquid tank mounting part configured to detachably mount the external cleaning liquid tank. By adopting such a configuration, it becomes possible to easily clean the nose even when going outside by preparing and storing a cleaning solution having an appropriate salt concentration in the external cleaning solution tank in advance.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily clean the nose even in a general household.

It is a figure showing the schematic structure of the portable nasal washing device concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the outline of rotation operation | movement of a washing nozzle unit. It is a block diagram which shows the outline of a portable nasal washing apparatus. It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the portable nasal washing apparatus which concerns on other embodiment of this invention.

  FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B schematically show a portable nasal washing apparatus 10 which is an embodiment of the portable washing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 1A shows a state when the portable nasal irrigation device 10 is not used (portable state), and FIG. 1B shows a state where the portable nasal irrigation device 10 is used.

  The portable nasal irrigation device 10 is configured to inject irrigation liquid into a user's nasal cavity at a predetermined pressure. The portable nasal washing apparatus 10 includes a washing liquid storage unit 12 and a main body 14. The cleaning liquid storage unit 12 is configured to store the nasal cleaning liquid in a watertight manner, and functions as a tank for the cleaning liquid. In this embodiment, about 0.9% by weight of salt solution is stored as a nasal wash solution, but the concentration and volume are not limited to this. The material constituting the cleaning liquid storage unit 12 does not necessarily have elasticity as in the prior art. Here, a hard resin material is used, but it is also possible to use glass or metal. The cleaning liquid storage unit 12 has a cleaning liquid replenishment unit 122 for containing the cleaning liquid.

The main body 14 of the portable nasal washing apparatus 10 includes at least a washing nozzle unit 16, a washing liquid supply unit 22 (see FIG. 2), an operation switch 18, and a control unit 30 (see FIG. 3). The cleaning nozzle unit 16 is disposed in a concave portion 142 provided in the central portion of the main body 14 and opened upward and in one longitudinal direction. The cleaning nozzle unit 16 is rotatably supported by a rotary shaft 144 provided in the main body 14. ing. As shown in FIG. 2, the rotation operation of the cleaning nozzle unit 16 is performed so as to selectively move to any one of a non-use position and a plurality of use positions completely accommodated in the recess 142. Since the cleaning nozzle unit 16 is configured to be locked at any of the selected positions, the user can move the cleaning nozzle unit 16 to an arbitrary position and fix it.
The cleaning nozzle unit 16 includes a cleaning nozzle 162 at the tip. The cleaning nozzle 162 has a shape (droplet shape) that is a combination of approximately conical and hemispherical portions. The tip of the washing nozzle 162 is configured to be tapered and the leading edge is rounded, so that it fits gently regardless of the size of the user's nasal cavity. Cleaning water is supplied to the cleaning nozzle 162 via a curved pipe having a curved portion.

  The cleaning liquid supply unit 22 is configured to supply the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid storage unit to the cleaning nozzle unit at a predetermined pressure. As shown in FIG. 2, the cleaning liquid supply unit 22 includes a motor-driven pump, sucks the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid storage unit 12, and passes through the supply pipe 24 and the liquid supply path in the rotating shaft 144. The cleaning nozzle unit 16 is configured to be sent out. In this embodiment, the supply pipe 24 is disposed inside the main body 14 so as to avoid the recess 142.

  The operation switch 18 is configured to receive an operation related to cleaning on or cleaning off from a user. In this embodiment, a configuration is adopted in which the cleaning is turned on when the user presses the operation switch 18 and the cleaning is turned off when the operation switch 18 is released. However, the present invention is not limited to this.

  The main body 14 is further provided with a battery accommodating portion for accommodating the battery 20 and a setting switch 32. The setting switch 32 is provided to set the pressure of the cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning liquid storage unit 12 to the cleaning nozzle unit 16. Here, the setting switch 32 is supported so as to be selectively slidable to five positions in the longitudinal direction, and the supply pressure of the cleaning liquid can be adjusted in five steps according to the position of the setting switch 32. Yes. The setting of the supply pressure of the cleaning liquid is not limited to this, and it is possible to configure so that a multistage setting is possible.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the cleaning liquid storage unit 12 described above is preferably provided with a concentration sensor 26 and a temperature sensor 28. The concentration sensor 26 is configured to detect the salinity concentration of the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid storage unit 12. The temperature sensor 28 is configured to detect the temperature of the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid storage unit 12.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an outline of the portable nasal washing apparatus 10. The control part 30 mentioned above is comprised so that operation | movement of each part of the portable nasal washing apparatus 10 may be controlled comprehensively. The control unit 30 controls the cleaning liquid supply unit 22 via the driver 38 when the user turns on the operation switch 18, and supplies the cleaning liquid to the cleaning nozzle unit 16 at a pressure corresponding to the setting content of the setting switch 32. Supply. Further, when the salinity concentration detected by the concentration sensor 26 is less than 0.6% by weight or exceeds 1.2% by weight, the control unit 30 notifies the user via the notification unit 34. As a configuration example of the notification unit 34, a configuration for sounding an alarm sound and a configuration for blinking or lighting light are conceivable. Further, as the notification unit 34, it is possible to adopt a configuration capable of outputting sound or a small display capable of displaying a message.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, when the liquid temperature detected by the temperature sensor 28 is less than 25 ° C. or exceeds 45 ° C., the control unit 30 notifies the user via the notification unit 34. The notification unit 34 preferably notifies the user by a method different from the notification of the salinity concentration such as changing the alarm sound or changing the light display mode. Moreover, the control part 30 operates the heater 40 via the driver 36 as needed, and heats it to appropriate temperature. Here, 35 ° C. is the appropriate temperature, and the upper and lower 10 ° C. range is the appropriate temperature range, but it goes without saying that the value is not limited to these values.

  As described above, the portable nasal irrigation apparatus 10 employs the above-described configuration, so that when the user presses the operation switch 18, the cleaning liquid is injected from the cleaning nozzle 162 into the nasal cavity of the user at a desired pressure. . For this reason, the posture of the user, the holding angle of the portable nasal cleaning device 10, the gripping force of the portable nasal cleaning device 10 by the user, etc. do not affect the cleaning pressure of the cleaning liquid. As a result, even a user who is not accustomed to nasal washing can perform nasal washing with peace of mind without worrying about side effects such as otitis media. As a result, it becomes possible to easily make nasal washing habits even in ordinary households, and it is possible to promote the health of the user.

  In addition, it is possible to prevent the user from performing nasal washing with an inappropriate salt concentration and liquid temperature. For this reason, since it is possible to prevent inconvenience that the user has an unpleasant feeling due to nasal washing, it becomes even more familiar to nasal washing and easily becomes a habit.

  Furthermore, since the injection pressure of the cleaning liquid can be selected and fixed, the user can always perform nasal cleaning with the injection pressure of the cleaning liquid that he / she feels comfortable with. No special practice or other effort is required to gain. Since there is no need to pay attention to the pressing force of the tank and how to hold the device as in the past, the user can concentrate on nasal washing. As a result, it is also easy to learn a difficult method in which the cleaning liquid reaches the throat through the nasal cavity and the cleaning liquid is discharged from the mouth to further improve the cleaning effect.

  In the portable nasal washing apparatus 10 described above, an external cleaning liquid tank mounting section configured to detachably mount the external cleaning liquid tank 124 may be provided in the cleaning liquid storage section 12. For example, the external cleaning liquid tank mounting part may be provided in the cleaning liquid replenishing part 122. It is preferable that a screw portion is formed in the cleaning liquid replenishment portion 122 and a screw portion that fits the screw portion is also provided in the external cleaning liquid tank 124. If the external cleaning liquid tank 124 is filled with an appropriate concentration of saline before being capped and carried, the nasal cleaning can be easily performed without preparing the cleaning liquid on the go. At this time, since the washing water can be heated by the heater 40, it becomes possible to perform nasal washing comfortably using a washing liquid having a suitable temperature even when away from home.

  The capacity of the external cleaning liquid tank 124 may be the same as that of the cleaning liquid storage unit 12, but it is convenient to appropriately prepare a small capacity (about 50 milliliters) to a large capacity (about 200 milliliters). If the external cleaning liquid tank 124 is appropriately provided with a scale for easily understanding the amount of liquid, it is easy to adjust the salinity of the cleaning water.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the user adds salt by himself to the cleaning liquid has been described. However, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the portable nasal cleaning device 10 automatically supplies salt. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the main body 14 may be provided with a separate salt container 146, and an appropriate amount of salt may be supplied from the salt container 146 to the cleaning liquid container 12 using the auto-feeding mechanism 148. If the amount of the cleaning liquid container 12 is 100 milliliters, 0.9 grams of salt may be automatically supplied by the auto-feeding mechanism 148. The supply amount of the auto-feeding mechanism 148 may be adjusted by changing the number of rotations according to the liquid amount.

  The above description of the embodiment is to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown not by the above embodiments but by the claims. Furthermore, the scope of the present invention is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of the claims.

10-Portable nasal washing device 12-Cleaning liquid container 14-Main body 16-Cleaning nozzle unit 18-Operation switch 20-Battery 22-Cleaning liquid supply part 24-Cleaning liquid supply pipe 26-Concentration sensor 28-Temperature sensor 30-Control part 32- Setting switch 34-notification section

Claims (4)

A portable nasal irrigation device configured to inject irrigation liquid into the nasal cavity at a predetermined pressure,
A cleaning liquid containing portion configured to contain a wash solution,
The body,
With
The body is
A cleaning nozzle unit configured to inject a cleaning liquid into the user's nasal cavity;
A cleaning liquid supply unit configured to supply the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid storage unit to the cleaning nozzle unit at a predetermined pressure;
An operation switch configured to accept an operation related to cleaning on or cleaning off from a user;
A controller configured to control the cleaning liquid supply unit when the operation switch receives a cleaning on operation, and to supply the cleaning liquid to the cleaning nozzle unit at a predetermined pressure;
Comprising at least, and,
The cleaning nozzle unit is disposed in a recess provided in a central portion of the main body and opened upward and in one longitudinal direction, and is rotatably supported by a rotation shaft provided in the main body. A portable nasal irrigation device configured to selectively move to any one of a non-use position and a use position that are completely carried in the recess . A concentration sensor for detecting a salt concentration of the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid storage unit;
A notification unit configured to notify that when the detection value of the concentration sensor is outside a predetermined range;
The portable nasal rinse apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: A setting switch configured to accept a setting operation of the pressure of the cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning liquid container to the cleaning nozzle unit;
The portable nasal irrigation device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control unit is configured to adjust a supply pressure by the cleaning liquid supply unit according to a setting content of the setting switch.   The portable nose according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the cleaning liquid storage section includes an external cleaning liquid tank mounting section configured to detachably mount an external cleaning liquid tank. Cleaning device.

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