Allergies & Allergy Shots: McLean, VA Diagnosis & Long-Term Treatment

Allergy immunotherapy, commonly known as allergy shots or allergy injections, is an effective treatment for your allergy symptoms in the McLean, VA area. Allergy shots are an effective treatment for allergic reactions to tree, grass, and ragweed pollens, house dust mites, molds, pets, bee stings, and more.

To better understand how allergy shots can help you, you should first understand what causes allergies. Allergies occur as a result of an overreaction by your immune system to some type of stimulus. If you are allergic to pollen that means that your body overreacts and sends antibodies to the pollen which in turn causes an allergic reaction. Allergy shots work to decrease or eliminate your allergy symptoms by helping you develop a tolerance or resistance to specific allergens.

Diagnosis and Treatment

After obtaining a thorough history, we examine you to look for signs and symptoms of allergies. To determine which allergens you react to, we will then perform allergy testing. If it is decided that allergy shots are indicated, there is a build up phase which generally entails receiving an allergy shot once a week for four to five months. Each week the concentration of allergens in your allergy shot will increase. Typically, you will be able to visit our office at a time that is convenient for you, and one of our caring professionals will administer your allergy shots.

After you have built up to an effective dose, you will stay at this same dose during the “maintenance phase.” During this phase, you will generally receive allergy shots every one to four weeks.

Allergy shots can greatly reduce or even eliminate allergy symptoms that you experience on a daily basis. This treatment method has given countless individuals with seasonal and non-seasonal allergies a higher quality of life. They have been an option for millions of allergy sufferers for more than one hundred years. Allergy shots are effective in about 80 to 85 percent of patients.

Duration

This will vary from person to person. Keep in mind that it usually takes between four to six months before allergy shots begin to become effective. In general, if there has been no improvement in your symptoms after twelve to eighteen months, the allergy shots are discontinued.

Safety

While serious reactions are rare, we take all the appropriate precautions to ensure your safety. Our allergists and staff are trained to recognize serious reactions and treat them immediately. After you receive an allergy shot, you should remain in our office for at least 30 minutes so that we can monitor you for any possible reaction.

You can visit any one of our three office locations during our weekday hours and meet with one of our allergists today. We accept new patients and look forward to helping them take control of their allergy symptoms. You can call or request an appointment online with Dr. Kletz or Dr. Gondi at one of our McLean, VA area locations.

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