Phoenix Environmental Allergy Testing

Skin Testing For Environmental Allergies

At the time of your appointment, it is important to tell your Phoenix allergy doctor or one of the nurses about any medications you may be taking before skin testing is performed as certain medications can interfere with the ability to perform this kind of testing.

Skin testing sometimes provides different information than blood testing and in some cases is more accurate than blood testing, although in some instances, especially when testing for food allergies, both types of testing may be needed.

The following medications may interfere with skin testing and should be discontinued 7 days before testing (if possible) is performed in order for testing to be accurate: Claritin (loratadine), Zyrtec (cetirizine), Allegra (fexofenadine), Benadryl (diphenhydramine), Clarinex (desloratadine), Xyzal (levocetirizine), Chlorpheniramine, Actifed, Dimetapp, Patanase, Astelin (azelastine), Dymista (fluticasone/astelin), Periactin (cyproheptadine).

The following medications should be discontinued 3 days prior to testing (if possible) for testing to be accurate:

Pataday/patanol (olopatadine), Azelastine eye drops, ketotifen eye drops, epinastine eye drops.

There are additional medications that may interfere with skin testing, however they should not be discontinued without further discussion with your primary care doctor or one of the providers at San Tan Allergy & Asthma. If you are interested in allergy testing, please contact our office and schedule an appointment to meet with one of our Phoenix allergy experts.