Convenience:
Since you can administer them at home, allergy drops, or Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT), keep you from spending time on regular office visits to your allergist that are required by shots. This is convenient for people who travel and cannot get to the doctor’s office for regular allergy shot visits. This method is also pain-free.
Affordable:
Allergy drops are comparable in cost to the co-pay for shots and medications for most patients, but lasts only 5 years, while other medication costs could be indefinite. Each patient is evaluated on their circumstances, their insurance coverage, medical history, and reactions.
Safety:
Allergy shots are available to patients from age two and up. Allergy drops are usually easier for our patients and produce fewer undesirable reactions than allergy shots. Allergy drops are also easier for most patients to remember to take, which helps with the treatment process. SLIT also offers a better safety profile. The incidence of anaphylaxis to shots is three in one million. There have been no reports of severe reactions to allergy drops using our protocol. SLIT is all-natural – unlike medications – and is made from simple extracts of pet dander, pollens, dusts, and mold.
Effectiveness:
In the most recent meta-analysis, performed by the world renowned Cochrane Review (2009), more than 2300 patients on sublingual immunotherapy had a significant reduction in symptom scores and the use of medication for allergies and asthma without severe reactions or anaphylaxis. Allergy drops are endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) guideline. SLIT eliminates allergic reactions instead of masking symptoms as medications do. This is an effective treatment for allergies because it is administered daily and the onset of action is generally quicker (within 4 weeks). Allergy drops produce fewer unfavorable reactions than shots.
The concept behind immunotherapy treatments, including allergy shots and drops, is to subject the body to a tiny amount of the substances that cause allergies. Over a several month period, those concentrations will increase and a decrease in symptoms will occur.
Allergy drops (under-the-tongue included) have been used for more than one hundred years.
Over the last 30 years, there is much scientific evidence which clearly documents their effectiveness and safety.
The majority of patients will experience fewer symptoms and begin to build immunity within a few weeks of starting allergy drop therapy. For some people, it will require a few months before they feel the results from their treatment. Your dosing schedule will be customized by our allergists depending on the specific allergies. You are allowed to take your entire daily dose at one time or to divide it into two or three servings.