I'm sure I said somewhere in my hanging upside down post, to use sterile water to make the saline mix.
The trouble is, this problem causes so much pain it's hard to endure, and I was on my third antibiotic with no results. I learned it was notoriously difficult to treat some sinus infections and I simply had to resort to my own methods.
The relief was almost instant once that ticking creaking noise started. When the tick tick tick happened on the first side, the pain disappeared on that side only. I'd say that was a strong indicator of the localized effect of pressure equalization.
I would protest that this is by no means a folk remedy. Saline nose douche devices were sold by Boots for most of my life. But then, after a week, I'd have taken treatment from a bloke dancing around a fire with a bone in his nose.
Tilting head back? No use at all. Damn nigh on upside down is required, and if anything tilting forwards if complete inversion is impossible. But hey, in an aircraft . . .