Allergy Shots in Melbourne, FL

Who Benefits from Allergy Shots?

Patients of many different ages can safely tolerate allergy shots. However, you should always check with your doctor, especially if you are pregnant, on beta blockers, have a poorly controlled autoimmune disease, or severe asthma.

What Is An Allergy Shot?

Benefits of Allergy Shots

How do Allergy Shots Work?

Allergy shot immunotherapy works by changing the response of your immune system toward an allergen. Exposure to incrementally increased doses of the allergen gives the immune system time to produce antibodies that help block the symptoms of allergy and reduce inflammation.

Most people take an antihistamine, such as Zyrtec, Claritin or Allegra, before an allergy shot visit. Prior to receiving an allergy shot, you will be evaluated to make sure you are healthy enough and feeling well to receive treatment. You may receive 1 or multiple shots depending on how many allergies you are being treated for.

Allergy Shot Side Effects

After getting an allergy shot, you’ll need to be monitored for at least 20-30 minutes to ensure that you do not have a serious reaction.

You may have no reaction or you may have a local reaction where your skin itches and becomes red and/or swollen. Although extremely rare, it is possible for a person to get anaphylaxis after an allergy shot. If this does occur, it is usually within 20-30 minutes of receiving the shot, and it can be quickly treated with epinephrine administered by a medical professional.

After an allergy shot, you should refrain from vigorous exercise, as this causes your body to metabolize the shots more quickly. This makes the dose of allergen more potent and puts you at risk of experiencing a more severe allergic reaction.

Where Do I Receive an Allergy Shot?

Allergy shot immunotherapy should be provided in a doctor’s office. This is because a medical professional should be prepared to provide emergency treatment should you have a serious reaction.

Allergy shots should be injected subcutaneously, or under the skin, into tissue that has limited blood supply and slow absorption. Injections into muscle should be avoided.

Allergy Shots Schedule

Allergy shots are scheduled over the course of 3 to 5 years. During the first few months, shots are administered 1 to 2 times a week in increasingly larger doses. This is known as the build-up phase. Once the shot has reached maximum strength, it is given once every 2 to 4 weeks through a maintenance phase.

Although this is the conventional allergy shot schedule, Dr. Beerelli may modify it according to your needs.