Allergy Testing

Welcome to allergy testing at Mass ENT! Allergy skin prick testing is a useful diagnostic tool to identify specific allergies that may be contributing to your nasal/sinus problems. With the skin prick test, we test for various common outdoor, indoor, and food allergens.

Skin Prick Test

The skin test consists of 50- 60 different allergy antigens, which will be lightly pricked onto the surface of the skin with tiny lancet tips. We test for common outdoor, indoor, and food allergens. They are placed either on the arms or on the back. Within 15- 20 minutes of placement of the antigens, an allergic reaction can develop. The reaction will be measured to determine the severity of the allergy.

Pulmonary Function Test

In patients with asthma, we will perform a breathing test (pulmonary function test (PFT)) before the allergy test. This is done to ensure the highest level of safety as there is a potential that allergy testing may precipitate an asthma attack. During the PFT, you will be asked to exhale forcefully into a machine, which will show us your lung capacity and other aspects of your breathing. If your PFT results show that you are below the testing parameters, then we may have to reschedule your appointment to another time