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About this tool
Step-by-step technique checks for pMDI, spacer, dry powder, soft mist and breath-actuated inhalers.
The Inhaler Technique Checklist walks through the correct sequence for each inhaler family — metered-dose, spacer, dry powder, soft mist and breath-actuated — and scores which steps you actually perform. Steps are marked critical when getting them wrong stops the drug reaching the lungs, following the technique instructions in GINA and BTS/SIGN asthma guidance. The most consequential difference it enforces is inhalation speed: slow and steady over 4-5 seconds for pressurised and soft-mist devices, quick and forceful for dry powder inhalers.
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Separates the steps that decide lung delivery from the ones that only affect side effects or device life.
Enforces the slow breath for pMDI, spacer and soft mist and the fast, forceful breath for dry powder.
Copies the missed steps as text you can show a pharmacist or asthma nurse at your next review.
About 10 seconds, or as long as is comfortable. The breath-hold is what lets the fine particles settle onto the airway lining instead of being blown straight back out, and skipping it wastes a large part of the dose.
Slowly and steadily over 4-5 seconds with a pressurised metered-dose inhaler, a spacer or a soft mist inhaler — but quickly, deeply and forcefully with a dry powder inhaler, because your own inspiratory effort is what disperses the powder. Using the wrong speed for the device is one of the commonest reasons an inhaler seems to stop working.
A spacer helps most people using a pressurised inhaler and is standard for children and for anyone who struggles to coordinate pressing with breathing in. It slows the aerosol, reduces the amount landing in the throat, and cuts the risk of oral thrush from steroid inhalers. Dry powder and soft mist inhalers are not used with a spacer.
Rinsing and spitting removes the drug left on the mouth and throat, which lowers the risk of oral thrush and hoarseness. It does not affect how much medicine reaches your lungs, so it is an aftercare step rather than a delivery step — but it is worth doing every time with an inhaled corticosteroid.