Immunotherapy for Allergies
When allergies prevent you from living life to the fullest, it makes a big impact on your family and your time together. Immunotherapy can free you from allergies.
LONG-TERM RELIEF
Gain peace of mind and find long-term relief by building tolerance to allergens. Delivered in shots, drops or sublingual tablets, immunotherapy delivers small doses of an allergen to desensitize the patient over time. It is useful to help patients with allergies to grass, weeds, pollens or dust. Treatment usually begins with a weak solution given once or twice a week. The strength of the solution is gradually increased with each dose.
Once the strongest dosage is reached, the injections are usually given once a month to control your symptoms. At this point, you have decreased your sensitivity to the allergens and reached your maintenance level, which requires fewer shots to keep up your tolerance.
When will I see an improvement?
Through immunotherapy, symptoms usually improve in 6 months to a year. Rush or cluster immunotherapy may reduce this time significantly, if you are a candidate. If the treatment is effective, it usually continues for 3 to 5 years. After this time, most people have improved enough to no longer need injections.
Treatment on your schedule
We know that family life doesn’t stop for treatment. To accommodate busy schedules, we have convenient early-morning, lunchtime, early-evening and Saturday morning shot hours. If you can’t make it in, we offer drops for treatment at home. Our clinics have free Wi-Fi and we’ve set up a private children’s area with TVs, movies, books and toys to make everyone feel at home.
RUSH and cluster IMMUNOTHERAPY
Rush and cluster immunotherapy are two options that greatly reduce the initial stage of treatment time from 30 weeks to 8-15 weeks. Rush begins with a day-long treatment where you receive increasingly larger doses of your allergen under constant supervision of our trained staff. Cluster involves weekly 2.5 hour appointments with injections every thirty minutes. Because the added intensity, these options aren’t a fit for patients with strong reactions to allergy tests or certain medical conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions About Immunotherapy And Allergy Shots
You will need to commit to a regular shot/treatment schedule, usually every week or every other week. Typically, you’ll receive your shot, drop or sublingual tablet and be observed for 30 minutes for any adverse reactions.
Some allergens can be treated with drops or sublingual tablets. For example, sublingual tablets are FDA approved for some grass pollens, dust mites and short ragweed. We’ll review all possibilities when we develop your treatment plan.
If you are ill or under the weather, it is best to call our office before your next appointment to determine if you should receive your next allergy shot.
While it is important to receive allergy shots at the proper time interval, missing a shot for a brief vacation is acceptable. Contact our office as soon as you know about travel so that we can make adjustments to your treatment.
We recommend staying at your maintenance dose for at least 3-5 years. After that, we will evaluate your treatment options and make a decision based on your specific needs.
Discover Comfort And Relief
Meet Our Providers
Patient Testimonials
Always caring for our patients and their families
We collect and record the latest pollen counts for North Texas at our AAAAI-certified counting station.
