Allergies occur when your body mistakes a harmless substance, such as pollen or animal dander, for a threat to your health and deploys your immune system to destroy it. Some people know what substance (or substances) causes this overreaction in the body, but many others are unsure about their triggers, and thus their symptoms seem random.
Why See an Allergist?
According to the CDC, over 31% of U.S. adults suffer from some kind of allergy1. This makes it the most common health condition in America, and to meet the demand, allergists are physicians who specialize in diagnosing and treating allergies.
If you know you have allergies but aren’t sure what’s causing your symptoms, if your allergy symptoms are so severe that they are affecting your daily life, or if over-the-counter allergy medications aren’t providing you adequate relief from your symptoms, an allergist is the person to consult.
How to Prepare for Your Visit
Your first appointment with an allergist will usually include an allergy test to confirm what exactly you’re allergic to. It’s important that you avoid taking any antihistamines (e.g., Zyrtec, Allegra, Benadryl, Claritin) in the week leading up to your appointment to avoid interfering with the results of your allergy test.
It’s not critical to bring anything with you, but we recommend you gather your medical history, medication list and information about any previous testing—such as lab work, imaging or other allergy tests—you’ve had done.
What Happens During the Visit
Your visit will include four basic steps:
- A detailed conversation about your history. We’ll discuss your symptoms, how severe they are, frequency, diet, environment and lifestyle.
- Physical examination of your ears, nose, throat, skin and lungs (depending on your symptoms)
- Testing
- Results and recommendations
There are two main types of allergy tests, and we’ll decide together which one we’ll perform in step 3. The most common is a skin test, in which a small dose of a potential allergen is applied under the surface of the skin to watch for potential reactions. The other is a blood test, in which we take a blood sample and send it off to test for an antibody called IgE (short for immunoglobulin E). The presence of IgE indicates that you have an allergy.
Once we have the results from your allergy test (regardless of which test you have), we’ll review them with you and confirm which substances trigger your allergy symptoms. We’ll also discuss potential avenues of treatment with you, ranging from lifestyle changes to medications to immunotherapy2. These recommendations will be personalized to you with your symptoms and severity in mind, with an aim to fit your lifestyle.
Our Goals When You Visit Us
We want to make allergy season tolerable for you, and we want to be your partner in your allergy treatment journey. This means that our goals when you visit us for an allergy appointment are to make sure you feel comfortable and confident in the steps ahead, and that we can be present as helpful, knowledgeable guides as you progress.
If you’re ready to begin your allergy treatment journey, start out by scheduling an allergy test with our expert team of allergists. Call North Alabama ENT Associates today to get on the calendar.
Learn More
1 CDC. (2020, February 21). FastStats. Www.cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/allergies.htm
2 Memon, R. J., Persaud, Y., & Savliwala, M. N. (2020). Allergy Desensitization. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535367/