Allergy Testing
Over 500 million people in the United States experience allergies of some sort. Proper assessment and testing of your symptoms is an important step in creating an effective allergy treatment. The first step is to determine which allergens cause a reaction in a patient is to perform allergy testing. At ENT & Allergy Centers of Texas we offer both skin testing and intradermal testing to properly diagnose your symptoms. Once we determine the allergies that a patient has we can then provide the most effective allergy treatment.
Skin Prick Test
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Their specific allergies
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Environmental avoidance of allergies
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Cross-reactive foods
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Medical treatment options
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Immunotherapy treatment options including sublingual immunotherapy or injection immunotherapy (Allergy shots)
Intradermal Testing
Intradermal testing is very similar to the skin prick test. Instead of pricking the surface of the skin, your Allergy doctor will inject the allergen right under the skin to form a bubble. This procedure is comparable to the common tuberculosis test. The intradermal test heightens skin sensitivity, allowing your doctor to notice any allergic reactions. This test is very useful for identifying insect sting allergies that are often accompanied with breathing issues in an estimated 13 million Americans. As this test is could provide some discomfort, we only perform this test on adults, or when tolerable for children and young adults.
Allergy Treatment
Once our team has a proper diagnosis of the allergies a patient has we can discuss allergy treatment. We offer a few different options, allergy shots and allergy drops being the most popular.
Allergy Shots
Allergy injections are one type of immunotherapy. It remains the single most effective treatment option. Immunotherapy of this type involves the slow administration of increasing doses of the allergen.
Allergy Drops
Allergy drops given under the tongue can offer many advantages over allergy shots. First, there are no needles. Allergy drops (also known as sublingual immunotherapy or SLIT) are applied by putting drops of allergen under the tongue. They have the same effect as injection immunotherapy without the needles.
Schedule a Consultation
To learn more about allergy testing, please call (972) 984-1050 to schedule a consultation at The ENT & Allergy Centers of Texas.
