Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) offers allergy testing and treatment services that are specific to the airborne environmental allergens prevalent in the Lehigh Valley.
Our ENT providers use allergy testing to pinpoint the precise types of pollens, grasses and other irritants that are behind your symptoms. We offer a full range of environmental allergy treatments, including novel allergy immunotherapies (such as sublingual drops) that help you overcome allergy symptoms for years to come.
Environmental allergy testing
Allergy tests help detect a patient’s sensitivity to environmental allergens. At LVHN, our skilled ear, nose and throat (ENT) providers use the most effective allergy skin testing available to learn as much as possible about your body’s sensitivity to airborne allergens.
Our tests are specific to the pollens from northeastern Pennsylvania. This helps us offer you the most effective treatments for your circumstances.
Your doctor may recommend one or more allergy tests based on your symptoms and circumstances:
- Prick: This test involves a light prick on the surface of the skin with a small amount of an allergen.
- Subcutaneous testing: This test injects a small amount of an allergen under the skin with a shot.
For each test, we closely monitor how your body reacts (if at all) to each allergen.
Please note: Our allergy program does not currently test for food allergies, medications, skin exposures or stinging insects, such as bees.
Environmental allergies treatments
Based on your test results, your care team will develop a treatment plan that’s tailored to you.
Your doctor may recommend one or more treatment strategies to best combat your symptoms, including:
- Avoidance: The first line of allergen defense is always avoiding what triggers symptoms for you. Staying inside when outdoor pollen counts are high can help. Using protective pillowcases can also reduce your allergen exposure and improve your symptoms. Your doctor can help you come up with strategies that work for your lifestyle.
- Medication management: Over-the-counter and prescription medications, as well as steroid injections, help many people effectively manage environmental allergy symptoms. If you don’t want the long-term commitment of an immunotherapy regimen, medication management might be right for you.
- Allergy immunotherapy: In allergy immunotherapy, we expose you to a very small dose of an allergen in the office either by injection or sublingually as drops under your tongue. At first, you’ll get these doses weekly for shots or sublingual drops. If you opt for shots, you will come less often over time. Sublingual allergy immunotherapy will continue as directed. This exposure helps your body outgrow an allergy slowly and safely. This innovative allergy treatment may be ideal if you have severe symptoms not managed by medication or if you wish to avoid taking medication for your symptoms.