What are the Benefits of Skin Allergy Testing?
Skin allergy tests, when combined with the expertise of your skin allergy specialist, can offer invaluable information regarding what you are and are not allergic to.
For instance, if you are suffering from wheezing at home, your allergy testing will help you get to the root of the issue. With this information, you and your allergist can develop a treatment plan to manage or even get rid of your symptoms.
How Do I Know If I Should Be Tested?
Testing done by an allergist is generally safe and effective for adults and children of all ages. Symptoms which usually prompt the allergist to perform skin testing include:
- Respiratory: itchy eyes, nose or throat; nasal congestion, runny nose, watery eyes, chest congestion, cough or wheezing
- Skin: hives, itchiness or atopic dermatitis
- Abdominal: cramping and diarrhea or constipation consistently after eating certain foods
- Severe reactions to stinging insect stings (other than swelling at the site of the sting)
- Anaphylaxis: a serious allergic reaction that affects many parts of the body at the same time
Get To Know More About Our Skin Tests
This type of testing is relatively painless. The way it’s performed is a very small amount of allergens is placed into your skin with pricks.
If you have allergies, swelling will occur where the allergen(s) was introduced.
Reactions occur within about 15 minutes. And you generally won’t have any other symptoms besides the small hives where the tests were done, which go away within 30 minutes.
Skin tests have to be done in an allergist’s office to minimize the risk of rare side effects. Thus, we encourage you to contact the skin allergists of Manhattan and Scarsdale to learn more about the benefits of skin allergy testing for you.
