Allergy Screening

Allergy skin prick testing seeks to detect a particular substance to which a person might be allergic, such as a species of grass pollen, cat, dog, horse hair or house dust mite. Skin prick tests can therefore be used to confirm or disprove a medical history that might suggest allergies.

A small drop of allergen solution is placed on the skin of the forearm and a small lancet is used to gently prick the skin through the drop of allergen solution. If the patient is allergic the skin develops an itchy lump like a hive comes up in the area of testing. We record the result and the size of the swelling roughly correlates with the amount of specific allergic antibody in the system.

Before you do the test

Some medications can reduce skin reactivity and affect the accuracy of your skin prick test. For this reason it is recommended, oral anti-histamine medications (e.g. Claratyne, Zyrtec and Telfast) are ceased 7 days prior to testing. Oral steroids (e.g. prednisone), steroid creams and nasal sprays should also be ceased 7 days prior to your test.  Antibiotics and asthma medications should not interfere with your test results and can be continued as prescribed.

If the test is positive depending on the reaction we have immunotherapy options we can offer you for treatment.