Allergology
Allergies not only affect quality of life and well-being. They can also become dangerous, for example by aggravating an asthma condition. In our practice, we identify the causes of your complaints and suggest a suitable therapy.
Triggers of allergies
In the case of an allergy, your immune system reacts with defensive reactions to a substance or certain proteins that are harmless in themselves. It is these excessive reactions that torment you and that we want to alleviate. Common triggers of symptoms are
- Pollen from grasses, cereals and trees
- Molds and fungi
- House dust mites
- Animal hair
Allergies that occur at work are particularly annoying. If you work as a florist or hairdresser, for example, you may be exposed to allergens. We will test you to see if you react to flowers or certain care products.
Diagnosis before therapy
We use the following tests in our practice.
1. prick tests
An employee carefully pricks the skin of your forearm in various places. Then she drips liquids, each containing an allergen, onto the mini-scratches one after the other. If the skin swells at the site, an immune reaction can be assumed.
Don’t worry: the test is not painful, but usually only causes temporary itching.
2. serological tests
Certain allergens can also or better be detected in the blood. This method is particularly helpful when we are unable to carry out skin tests due to certain illnesses or circumstances.
3. inhalation provocation tests for possible occupational disease
In order to test allergic reactions of the respiratory tract, we specifically provoke them. This means that we bring you into contact with the relevant allergens in a controlled manner. Based on the reactions, we can check whether your asthma or allergic rhinitis (hay fever) occurs in an occupational context.
Forms of therapy
You do not have to and should not suffer an allergy in silence. Modern medicine offers effective therapies. In addition to medication that targets the symptoms, these also include long-term “repairs” to the immune system. We offer these allergen immunotherapies (formerly known as hyposensitization) in our practice. Therapies are possible with tablets that you take daily for several years. We traditionally prefer to treat some allergies with regular injections here at Hohenzollerndamm.