Cluster Immunotherapy Q & A
How does cluster immunotherapy work?
Traditional immunotherapy involves weekly allergy injections for months at a time to build up your immunity to specific allergens. For many, the process is time-consuming, inconvenient, and slow in producing results.
With Allergy shots, the doctors at Allergy Testing Center administer injections over 8 or 9 visits to build up your tolerance to those allergens more quickly. A skin test prior to your cluster-immunotherapy sessions reveals what you’re allergic to and allows the doctors to formulate the exact recipe for your allergy injections. The injections you receive are customized to your needs, including your allergy history and exposure.
Following the 8 or 9 cluster visits for multiple injections, you transition to once-a-month maintenance allergy shots for a period of 3 to 5 years.
What are the benefits of Allergy shots?
It’s helps you feel better more quickly than conventional immunotherapy. Plus, fewer visits to the doctor’s office for allergy injections means you have more time to live your life, rather than worry about allergy treatment.
What should I expect during the Allergy shots session?
To reduce the chance of having an adverse reaction, the doctors at Allergy Testing Center have you take an antihistamine prior to your visit, and also during. At the cluster immunotherapy session, you receive 2-3 injections every 30 minutes. By the end of your visit, you have received a month’s worth of injections in just two hours.
Throughout the session, you’re carefully monitored for any allergic reactions.
What are the side effects of Allergy shots?
Most reactions are mild and involve swelling or redness at the site of the injections. These symptoms usually go away in a day or two. Because of the high doses of allergens administered during the session, you are at a slightly greater risk of allergic reaction. This is why it’s imperative that you stay in the office throughout the session and remain there until fully cleared by the staff at Allergy Testing Center.
To learn more about whether you’re a candidate for cluster immunotherapy, call Allergy Testing Center or book an appointment online.