Oral Drops for Allergies

Patients have asked us about Oral Drops for allergic treatment. There has been some recent publicity on this in the local media.

There are currently two described types of oral drop therapy for allergy. Low dose, known as “Rinkle Method” and high dose known as sublingual immunotherapy, or the SLIT method. The low dose method has been known for many years. It is not effective treatment for allergy. The high dose method is more recent and may be helpful for allergy. However, it is currently investigational. This method has not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This means it has not been shown by scientific study to be safe or effective. In fact in the case of food allergy, oral therapy has been found to be dangerous, causing severe allergic reactions.

This is also the position of the American Academy of Allergy, the American College of Allergy and the National Academy of ENT Allergy. In addition, private insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid will not cover the cost of this unproven therapy.

Dr’s Shapiro and Lokshin are closely following the medical literature in this area and will bring it to our patients when and if we feel it is an appropriate, accepted safe and effective therapy.

We will keep you informed.