Allergy Treatment

	Quick Links Allergy Calendar Local Pollen Count If you have ever been diagnosed as being allergic, you are not alone. Over fifty million people in this country have one or more types of allergy. Allergy occurs when your immune system over-reacts to a normally harmless substance and builds excessive antibodies to that substance. In your blood these antibodies (IgE) trigger allergic symptoms when you are exposed to that substance. Our office staff is specially trained to deal with these kind of allergic problems. We offer medical and surgical therapies for allergic disease as well as immunotherapy, or allergy shots.

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Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a program designed to desensitize you to those substances which you are allergic. Sterile extracts have been prepared from allergy-producing substances such as house dust, animal danders, mold spores, and pollens. Before a patient is given allergy shots, he/she is tested using Serial End Point Titration techniques, a very safe method of determining not only what a patient is allergic to, but also how severely they may react to a particular allergen. Your allergy test results are used to create a mixture of substances to which you are allergic. This formula is custom made according to the things to which you are allergic and the level of sensitivity you have to each of these substances.

How does Immunotherapy work?
Allergies to substances you inhale are caused by your body producing excessive antibodies (IgE) toward these substances when you are exposed to them. When re-exposure occurs, you experience allergic symptoms. Immunotherapy is designed to block your body's allergy antibodies and stimulate production of protective antibodies, thereby eliminating your allergy symptoms.

In the beginning, small dilute doses are used to build your tolerance to the antigans over a period of time. The dose that provides the patient with the most symptom relief will become your maintenance dose given to you at regular intervals. This dose is dependent on how well you tolerate the shots which, in turn can be dependent on how much pollen, mold or other allergy- producing substances are in the air you are breathing. At times adjustments are necessary to the maintenance dose such as when allergy season is most severe.

Thus, allergy immunotherapy is an individually tailored program designed to combat your specific allergies. It is the only specific treatment for allergy; all other treatments are directed at relieving allergy symptoms rather than stimulating the immune system as immunotherapy does. If you follow your doctor's instructions carefully and take your shots on a regular schedule, your general health and quality of life can be greatly improved.