Allergy Testing and Immunotherapy

Suffering from Allergies?

You can reduce or eliminate your symptoms without medication and without living your life in a box. Ask your doctor about allergy testing, and allergy shots today. Now available at Laurinburg ENT!

It’s Time to End Your Suffering

Why suffer needlessly with allergies? Help is waiting for you; real help that can reduce or end allergy symptoms permanently. Talk with your doctor today about what allergy testing and immunotherapy can do for you - and put you and your family on a path to relief!

What is an Allergy, and why do I have it now?

Your immune system provides a very valuable service in protecting your body from infection and disease. But your immune system can overreact to a harmless substance, releasing chemicals known as histamines, leukotrienes and prostaglandins. It is these chemicals that trigger the allergic symptoms you may be experiencing. An allergy can develop at any time in a person’s life and they often develop when we’re young. Allergies often develop from a combination of factors, particularly genetics and environment. A child with one parent who has allergies has genetic predisposition that increases their risk of developing allergies by 50%. The risk increases to 70% if both the child’s parents are allergy sufferers.

Allergies can also lead to other medical conditions including:

• Asthma
• Migraine headaches
• Sleep disorders
• Sinusitis (chronic sinus congestion)
• Nasal polyps (non-cancerous teardrop-shaped growths that form in the nose or sinuses)
  
  

Immediate Help is Available

You do not have to simply live life with your allergies, and there is help beyond medication or avoiding allergens to the point where it negatively impacts your life. There are two powerful steps to taking control of your allergies and limiting your symptoms: Allergy Testing and Immunotherapy. Both are available right here in your doctor’s office.

Allergy Testing

Allergy skin testing is a simple painless way to learn if you are suffering from allergies. About 8 out of 10 people who have allergic rhinitis (nasal itching, stuffiness, or congestion) go undiagnosed and untreated. An allergy test can identify the cause(s) of your allergies and put you on a path to treatment and relief. An allergy skin test can be performed quickly in the comfort of your doctor’s office. This test does not hurt and does not use a needle. It involves placing a small drop of several different allergens on or just under the surface of your skin, and measuring your body’s responses. It is really that simple.

Immunotherapy

During immunotherapy, your doctor will inject small amounts of the substances that are causing your allergies under your skin. This helps your body to adjust to the allergen causing you trouble. The result is less allergy symptoms when you encounter the allergen in your daily life. At first, you receive the treatment once a week as you work your way to what’s known as a maintenance dose. Once you reach the maintenance dose, your treatment will eventually move to once a month. After 1-3 years of therapy, you will have greatly reduced or eliminated your allergy symptoms and the need to take expensive medicines to control them. It’s that simple.

Why Immunotherapy?

According to Consumer Reports, only 1 in 4 allergy sufferers are highly satisfied with prescription medications, with the satisfaction rate for over-the-counter medication even lower. Research shows that immunotherapy + medication delivers a significant reduction in symptoms versus medication alone. A recent study showed that parents of children with allergic rhinitis saved over $5,000.00 in treatment costs over 18 months when opting for Immunotherapy versus non-immunotherapy treatments.

Immunotherapy = Real Savings

A recent study demonstrated the following cost reductions from receiving Immunotherapy versus other treatment options without Immunotherapy: Year 1: Symptoms improve Year 2: Cost savings of 15% Year 3: Cost savings of 48%

Allergies and Asthma

Most people with asthma also have allergies. Starting treatment with allergy shots can greatly improve your quality of life if you suffer from asthma. Studies show that 20% of asthma sufferers who have the treatment go completely off of their inhalers and the other 80% use significantly less medication to control their symptoms. This connection between Asthma and Allergies is so important that the National Institutes of Health recommends that all people with asthma should be allergy tested and be treated with allergy shots if they have positive results and allergy symptoms.

Know Your Allergies Review this symptom chart to see if what you are experiencing could possibly be caused by allergies: