Who Benefits from Sublingual Immunotherapy?
Many people with allergies look to sublingual immunotherapy, also called allergy drops, rather than avoiding allergens and taking medication to temporarily treat symptoms.
Immunotherapy has benefits you can’t get from medications that treat only the symptoms. Whether allergy drops or shots, immunotherapy is the only treatment method that treats the cause of allergies, not just the symptoms.
Not all allergy sufferers are candidates for allergy shots. Allergy drops can help the broad range of patients that include:
- Infants and children. Allergy drops have proven especially helpful for children with eczema and recurrent ear infections, which often have an underlying allergic cause. Research shows that many children with untreated eczema and allergies often develop asthma and other chronic conditions later in life, so treating them early can have lifelong benefits and potentially prevent additional allergies from developing.
- Severe asthmatics. Research shows positive outcomes when sublingual immunotherapy was used to treat asthma, and additional studies are underway. Allergy drops can build tolerance for allergic/asthma triggers and reduce the need for asthma medication. Because of its safety profile, even severe asthmatics can be given a chance to reduce their symptoms.
- Patients with chronic conditions like sinusitis. Research shows that chronic sinus conditions and allergies are related. Treating the underlying allergic disease with sublingual immunotherapy has shown favorable results in patients with chronic sinus conditions.
- Patients with food and mold allergies. Other than avoidance and symptom relief, there has been little to offer patients suffering from these allergies. Clinical evidence shows a great deal of promise in treating food and mold allergies through sublingual immunotherapy, which even the most sensitive patients can tolerate.
- Highly sensitive patients. Allergy drops may be the ideal solution for patients who fear needles and are unwilling or unable to undergo allergy shot treatment. This includes patients who have experienced systemic reactions to allergy shots, who dread shots, who cannot travel frequently for shots, and especially those who are young (most children under five are not candidates for shots).