Although recognized in Europe as an effective treatment for environmental allergies, sublingual allergy “drops” remains a topic of debate amongst allergists here in the United States. This therapy involves administering increasing doses of allergens under the tongue to reduce a person’s allergic sensitivity. While this method has been shown effective for patients only having one or two allergies, most surveyed doctors in the U.S. use mixtures of multiple allergens and the dose is not clear. There is not enough research to support this method. Furthermore, allergy drops are not FDA approved and not covered by insurance, although allergy sublingual tablets, which exist for treating certain grass allergies, ragweed allergy and allergy to dust mite are currently FDA approved and can be prescribed by your allergist at San Tan Allergy & Asthma.
Although ongoing research is being conducted on allergy drops, current findings have shown to achieve proper dosing, cost would become prohibitive. “There is little evidence to suggest that it is more effective than placebo at treating allergic conditions. We would do it if we thought we could do it right,” says Dr. Jain. “The studies that have been done for sublingual immunotherapy do show some benefit when treating for one allergen, but the long term effect on “curing” allergies is lacking, in contrast to what we know about allergy injections.”
For these reasons, the providers at San Tan Allergy & Asthma offer allergy shots as a long-term, sometimes curative type of therapy for patients with multiple environmental allergies.
To read more about allergy shots visit one of the links below:
www.aaaai.org/patients/publicedmat/tips/whatareallergyshots.stm
www.acaai.org/patients/resources/allergy-injections/Pages/allergy-injections.aspx
