Allergy Shots (Immunotherapy) and Other Treatments

Here at TriCounty Allergy Center, we offer a combination of different and complimenting treatment strategies to provide the most effective and personalized care possible. Although many people suffer from similar allergy and asthma symptoms, not everyone has the same severity or response to medicines. There are 3 basic treatment strategies when it comes to improving symptoms in allergic conditions:

1) Avoidance

2) Medicines

3) Allergy Shots (Immunotherapy)

For more information on allergy avoidance measures and allergy medicines, please click on the links above.

The remainder of this page will focus on Immunotherapy or "allergy shots". Allergy Immunotherapy is a clinically proven and generally safe method of changing your immune system from one that is inherently allergic, to one one that is non-allergic (or at least less allergic) by means of creating a tolerance to specific allergen proteins on a cellular level.

These "buildup phase" doses are given once or twice per week for several months. As the doses increase, your helper T cells (usually involved in fighting infection, but in this case they are also implicated in causing allergic symptoms) gradually begin to tolerate the specific allergen proteins and these T cells eventually shift toward the "non-allergic" type. Once you have reached the targeted high dose, called "Maintenance Dose", you then receive these shots less frequently (generally once every 2-4 weeks) and you "maintain" the same high dose throughout the rest of your treatment. Typically, maintenance dose shots are given every 2-4 weeks for a total of about 4-5 years, although some people choose to continue for a longer duration.

As you reach these higher doses during maintenance, your cells and allergic antibodies begin to change and subsequently, this is correlated with:

(1) fewer allergy symptoms

(2) reduced allergy medication needs

(3) fewer asthma symptoms

(4) less asthma medications

There is also evidence that allergen immunotherapy may decrease the chances of developing new allergies and even reduce the chances that allergic children will develop asthma. There may also be some benefit for those that suffer from eczema (atopic dermatitis), although this is less well defined. For all of these reasons, allergen immunotherapy is considered both clinically effective and cost effective (as a means to decrease medicine use, doctor visits, asthma hospitalizations, loss of work/school, etc..).

Allergy shots are used to treat the following:

Pollen allergy (trees, grasses, weeds)

Animal allergy (cats, dogs, horses, etc..)

Dust Mites

Cockroach allergy (more common than you think)

Mold allergy

They are also used to treat stinging insect allergy (Hymenoptera):

Honeybee

Wasp

Yellowjacket

Hornet

Fire Ant

Shots are generally started no earlier than 5 yrs of age but some exceptions are made. Although allergy shots are generally safe,they do carry some risk of allergic reactions. Ask your allergy doctor for more information on risks, protocols, and other details.