Allergy drops are an alternative to allergy shots. Both treatments are options for treating allergies at their cause.
While allergy shots involve injecting small doses of allergen under your skin with a needle, allergy drops are taken by mouth.
SCIT and SLIT are forms of allergen immunotherapy. Allergen immunotherapy refers to repeatedly exposing you to small doses of something you're allergic to (allergen) to make you less sensitive to it. When the allergen is given to you by placing it under your tongue, it's called sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) or 'allergy drops'.
Unlike antihistamines and other medications that treat allergy symptoms, immunotherapy treats the condition itself.
When your body is exposed to a moderate to large amount of something you're allergic to, your immune system tries to get rid of it. This causes the familiar symptoms of allergic rhinitis, like sneezing, runny nose, and watery eyes.
On the other hand, repeated exposure to small but increasing doses of allergen desensitizes your immune system. Eventually, your body becomes tolerant of the allergen, so you get fewer or less severe symptoms when exposed to larger amounts of it.
Allergy drops, like other forms of immunotherapy, treat the cause and not just symptoms of allergies.
Treatment with allergy drops has only been approved by the FDA for four allergens. They are:
A comprehensive review of published studies revealed there is a lot of good evidence that allergy drops are safe and effective for treating allergic rhinitis. SCIT was also safe and effective, but there wasn't enough evidence to determine if allergy shots are more effective than SCIT.
A paper reviewing the safety of immunotherapy used to treat allergic rhinitis showed the chance of severe reactions is much lower for allergy drops compared to SCIT (allergy shots).
A review of published studies showed that symptom relief continued for two to three years after allergy drop treatment was stopped after being taken for three years.
A lot of research has been done using allergy drops to treat a variety of allergens, but more is needed to determine its overall safety and effectiveness.
Allergy drops may come in liquid or tablet form.
Currently, all allergy drops approved by the FDA are in tablet form. The FDA is still evaluating the safety and efficacy of the liquid form and hasn't approved it yet. In the United States liquid drops are still used by some doctors but only as off-label drugs.
After your healthcare team has performed allergy testing to determine exactly what you're allergic to, you'll be treated with a tablet containing an extract of your specific allergen.
Your first dose of allergy drops should be given at your doctor's office.
If you tolerate the first allergy drop, you'll give the rest of the allergy drops to yourself at home.
Most allergy drops are taken every three to seven days for three years. You'll usually have no or only minimal allergy symptoms the fourth year. Some people continue without symptoms indefinitely, but most have to start another course of allergy drops after two or three years because symptoms return.
If you have seasonal allergies (hay fever), you'll start using the allergy drops three to four months before allergy season starts and continue taking them until it ends. If you're allergic to something that's around all the time, like I dust mites, you'll take them throughout the year.
Your allergy symptoms should begin to improve within a few months of starting allergy drops but getting the full benefit may take a year or more.
Since you give yourself the tablets at home, you should get written instructions about when to contact your doctor and how to identify and manage any possible side effects. Your doctor will also prescribe epinephrine that can be self-injected in case you have an anaphylactic reaction.
You shouldn't take allergy drops if you have severe asthma because they can set off an asthma attack.
Allergy drops might also be effective for food allergies, but a lot less research has been done on it compared to oral immunotherapy (OIT).
OIT is another method used to desensitize you to an allergen. But it's only used for allergies to food, especially peanuts. It's similar to allergy drops, but instead of the allergen being in a tablet that's put under your tongue, you're given tiny amounts of the food allergen to eat.
An article comparing OIT and allergy drops have found that OIT works better but has more side effects. Using both methods together may give a better result with fewer side effects. More studies are needed.
OIT is also not FDA approved. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, while we can't know if or when a standardized OIT product would be developed by anyone or approved by the FDA, the most likely would be for peanut allergy.
Side effects most often occur during the first week of treatment. Many are usually mild. Side effects include:
Rarely, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain occur.
A severe life-threatening body-wide allergic reaction called anaphylaxis rarely occurs. Symptoms come on suddenly and include:
Anaphylaxis should be treated as soon as possible by self-injecting epinephrine and then calling 911.
Allergy drops can be very effective for treating allergic rhinitis due to ragweed, some grasses, and dust mites. They are as effective as allergy shots and are associated with fewer side effects. Currently there are only four types FDA-approved allergy drops, although other types are used as off-label drugs.
Allergy drops may be an excellent alternative to allergy shots for you if you don't like shots or don't have time for frequent visits to the doctor's office.