Allergies can harm your physical health, including your ears. When you come into contact with allergens, you can notice redness, inflammation, or itchiness. Even eczema-like conditions can appear. Since allergens interact with respiratory tracts, one can face breathing problems, runny nose, wheezing, and other symptoms. When your nose and throat are affected, your ears can also meet the consequences. Severe allergies can lead to threatening situations. Think of something like anaphylaxis. Nevertheless, detecting and treating allergens is critical to avoid unwanted outcomes.
Medical therapies can relieve your symptoms, such as oral or sublingual immunotherapy. These methods acclimatize your body to allergens to minimize the impact. This therapy can be more effective if the cause of your infection is dust mites or grass pollens. To decide the course of action, doctors will conduct critical tests, such as skin prick and blood tests. (source: earandallergyclinic.com/allergy-test-Singapore)
A brief overview of skin prick test
It is recommendable if your source of allergy is mold or dust mites. Test results are often precise. A specialist can mark a small area on your upper back or inner forearm to inject the allergens into your skin. Swollen and red skin can hint at an allergic reaction. These tests happen within the clinical setting and are mostly painless. Some people can experience a slight itchiness, though. Although anyone can go for this test, someone with anaphylaxis or skin inflammation may not be a suitable candidate. At the same time, if you take an oral antihistamine, it may not suit you. The eligible candidates can get their testing done within half an hour.
A brief overview of blood/ RAST test
This test type is recommendable to detect air-borne or food allergens. Common sources of food allergens include seeds, fruits, soya, milk, seafood, wheat, and others. On the other hand, dust mites and mold pollens can be air-borne allergens. Only a trained allergy doctor can perform this test, which needs to track particular IgE antibodies. RAST can be suitable for people who cannot take skin prick tests due to susceptibility to a high allergic reaction or using certain drugs that can interact with the skin prick test. Test results can take around one to two weeks to release.
Are these tests reliable?
Everyone wants to know if these tests are helpful. Skin prick tests can be efficient when done correctly. Sometimes, people develop allergic reactions much later in the trial, and the reports can be false due to the delayed onset. Reasons for late symptoms can be continuous allergen exposure. Or, you took a medicine that interfered with the results. Some believe RAST is better because of the lower chances of interference with the medication. Still, one cannot rule out the possibility of chance inaccuracy in the test reports.
If you are facing allergic reactions in your ears, visit your nearest clinic that specializes in this domain. They can suggest the right solutions for your ear’s health. If they deem a test necessary, they will tell you what it will be and why. Based on the diagnosis, they can advise you to take certain medications or therapies.
