Have you been diagnosed with inhalent allergies?  The Allergy staff at the ENT and Allergy Center of Missouri can help. 

We have provided general information about your treatment options for allergies and allergic symptoms.

Avoidance
Avoidance means avoiding the allergens that irritate you and cause allergic symptoms. Simply staying away and avoiding contact with known allergans will reduce your symptoms.

For indoor allergens like dust, create as dust-free an environment as possible. Use:

• Air purifiers
• Hepa filter vacuums
• Remove curtains and excess carpeting

For pet allergies, you may need to avoid the pet completely. At minim/um, pets should be kept out of bedrooms.

For mold allergies, cleaning mildew from moist areas and wiping ducts will remove allergenic mold spores.

Pollen allergies may be helped by showering and changing clothes when coming in from the outdoors. Nasal irrigation will also remove excess pollen.

Allergy Medications
Allergy medications may help to relieve your allergic symptoms. Medications include:

• Tablets: Tablets include antihistamine or decongestant. A leukotriene inhibitor also comes in tablet form.
• Nasal Sprays: Nasal sprays can deliver steroids, antihistamines and other types of medications.
• Eye drops: Eye drops may also be antihistamines or anti-inflammatory agents.
• Inhaled chemicals: Inhaled medications include lung openers and steroids.

Your provider will determine the appropriate medications for your symptoms.

Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is often known as "allergy shots" or "under-the-tongue drops". Skin or blood testing determines substances to which you are allergic, and provides information about the appropriate starting does for immunotherapy. Based on this information, immunotherapy exposes your body to its allergens in a safe and controlled manner, in order to reduce the severity of your allergic response over time.  It is a method of changing the body's immune system to enable it to totlerate environmental allergens like trees, grasses, molds, etc. Immunotherapy is delivered either by regular (i.e. weekly) under-the-skin small injections, or by daily placing drops under the tongue and holding them there for a short time, then swallowing.

Immunotherapy may be appropriate for you if avoidance and medications do not control your symptoms. Immunotherapy requires a relatively long term committment (usually 3-5 years), in order to achieve the best results. Although the effect on the body might not be permanent, may not completely eliminate allergy, and does not always permit discontinuation of other allergy medications, most patients are very happy with immunotherapy because they feel much better.

Please note that we do occasionally see patients who do NOT improve on immunotherapy

Your Allergy Treatment Plan
The allergy team at the ENT and Allergy Center will work with you to set up the best treatment plan for you.  Once the plan is in place, you will meet with one of our highly trained Allergy Nurses to learn the proper dosage and application for drops or to receive your initial shot therapy at the ENT and Allergy Center.