Allergy Specialist Boynton Beach
Allergy relief that doesn’t make you drowsy. Get back to life and leave the tissues at home.
Customized allergy treatment plans to meet your specific needs
If allergies aren’t treated, they can also lead to sinus or respiratory infections, which is why it’s important to get your allergy symptoms under control.
Here at Light E.N.T. in Boynton Beach, our allergy specialists create a personalized allergy treatment plan, including environmental control measures and immunotherapy, such as allergy shots or sublingual allergy drops. Learn more, and if you’re ready to schedule an appointment, contact us today.
Symptoms We Treat:
- You suffer from ear, nose, or throat symptoms
- Allergies or ear, nose, or throat symptoms aren’t under control
- Special diagnostic allergy tests are required
- Immunotherapy or other specialized treatments are necessary
- You suffer from fluid in the middle ear, disturbances in voice, deviated septum, enlarged tonsils, etc.
- Quality of life is seriously compromised
Common Allergies
Drug Allergy
Food Allergy
Insect Allergy
Pollen or Mold Allergy
What Causes Allergies?
More than forty-five million Americans suffer from allergy symptoms, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find relief from your symptoms! Allergies are rarely life-threatening, but they can cause significant distress and disturbance to your life. Allergies can also aggravate and intensify other conditions, like asthma.
Allergy symptoms are caused when your body’s immune system responds to a substance, called an antigen or allergen. Your body tries to protect you by sending out antibodies to wherever the allergen entered your body (usually your eyes, nose, or throat). When your antibody starts to fight the allergen, chemical mediators, such as histamine, enter the bloodstream, causing an allergic reaction or allergy symptoms like itching eyes, sneezing, nasal stuffiness etc.
Diagnosing Allergies
A physician can help you determine whether or not you have allergies. By reviewing a history of your symptoms, evaluating your diet, exercise, and your overall lifestyle habits, a physician can deduce whether you have an allergy. Allergy testing is required to make a definite diagnosis.
Skin Testing
Most of the time, skin testing, a largely pain-free procedure, is used to diagnose allergies. Both a small applicator and a small needle are used in order to place the allergen both above and below the skin of the arm. Welts reveal the problematic allergens. If a patient is cannot endure skin testing, in-vitro allergy testing is also available. Allergy testing is important to determine and design a treatment plan suited to your specific needs.
Allergy Treatment & Prevention
No matter your allergy, treatment is available in three forms: avoidance, medication, and immunotherapy.
Avoidance
Naturally, avoidance is the simplest and most straightforward of all treatment options. After all, if you are not exposed to an allergen, then it will have no effect on you. Our knowledgeable medical staff will give you easy-to-remember techniques that can help to keep you away from harmful allergens.
Medication
If avoidance is not sufficient to ease your suffering, medication is the next treatment step. While medication will not eliminate your allergies entirely, it can help treat symptoms so that they are bearable. Nasal sprays, anti-leukotrienes, antihistamines, and decongestants are among possible medications.
Immunotherapy
Finally, immunotherapy is a great option when you cannot avoid your allergens nor find relief with medication. Immunotherapy, which is more commonly known as an “allergy shot”, can be highly successful. In fact, studies have shown that between 80-90% of patients experience an improvement in their condition with regular treatments.
Allergy shots expose the body to small doses of a specific allergen. Over time, those doses increase as the body “learns” how to overcome the negative impact of the allergen. Most patients receive immunotherapy treatments for three to five years, but the effects can last even longer. Sometimes, immunotherapy can even cure an allergy.
What is an “Otolaryngic Allergist”?
Otolaryngic Allergists are physicians who are specialized in the Light E.N.T. (ear, nose and throat) areas. These physicians are experts in diagnosing and treating upper respiratory tract problems resulting from allergies.
Otolaryngic allergy is a more specialized Light E.N.T. doctor, which means they complete training for providing specialist care for patients with allergy and sinus disorders. There are a variety of other specialized areas within the Light E.N.T. practice, including rhinology (nose/sinus), facial plastic surgery, pediatric Light E.N.T., head & neck oncology, otology (ear), and sleep medicine.