If you’re dealing with persistent sneezing, congestion, or digestive issues, uncovering the cause may provide some measure of relief. Still, it’s natural to feel a little apprehensive about your upcoming allergy test, especially if you’re unsure how it works and how your life may change after.
At Respacare in Bridgewater, New Jersey, our allergy experts, Dr. Nehal Mehta and Dr. Prashant Patel, understand your concerns. We offer safe, in-office allergy testing and are here to help you feel more at ease by walking you through the process.
Allergies are an immune system reaction to a substance your body considers harmful but is safe for most people. The substance triggers the release of chemicals that cause a range of symptoms, like itchy eyes, skin rash, or diarrhea.
The type of symptoms you have may depend on the substance triggering the reaction. In some cases, the allergen may cause a dangerous reaction called anaphylaxis that affects multiple body systems like the lungs and heart.
You can develop an allergy to any substance at any time, and the severity of the reaction can range from mild to deadly. Knowing the cause of your allergies can help manage symptoms and reduce the risk of complications.
At Respacare, we test for all types of allergies, including environmental and food allergies. If you have a cold every spring that lasts several weeks or an itchy mouth after eating shrimp, you may have an allergy and should get tested. Allergies affect all ages and can occur at any time.
There are a few ways doctors test for allergies. We only recommend allergy testing after an initial consultation and do skin allergy testing at the office.
Using a thin needle, we prick or scratch the skin with tiny amounts of the suspected allergen. Depending on your symptoms and history, we may test for multiple allergens. The needle only penetrates the surface of the skin and causes little pain and no bleeding.
About 15 minutes later, we check your skin for a reaction. We consider the test positive if you develop a red, raised bump at the site of the skin prick.
After the allergy test, we explain what your results mean and provide recommendations on how to manage your allergies to prevent or minimize symptoms.
Avoiding the allergen is the primary treatment for keeping symptoms at bay. But avoiding allergens isn’t always possible. For environmental allergies, you may need allergy medications to manage symptoms.
For seasonal, environmental, and insect sting allergies, we may recommend immunotherapy to desensitize your immune system to the allergen, eliminating or reducing the allergic reaction. We offer allergy injections and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), a new treatment option that goes under the tongue.
Allergy testing helps us create a personalized treatment plan to manage allergies and improve quality of life. If you have allergy symptoms but don’t know the cause, we can help.
Call us today or request an appointment online to schedule your allergy consultation.
