Skin prick testing is also known as SPT, a puncture test or a scratch test. It is mostly carried out on your arm or back by a trained, qualified and experienced skin prick testing practitioner to find out what foods/allergens you are allergic to.

You might come across the term IgE-mediated food allergies, which means that if you consume certain foods, your body reacts by producing immunoglobulin E. These are antibodies that cause allergic reactions because they produce chemicals in your cells. The allergic reaction produced can be seen or experienced on your skin, nose, throat and lungs. Allergic reactions to your respiratory system can lead to suffocation, while allergic reactions to your skin can cause itching, redness, bumps, pimples and rashes.

Why Should Skin Prick Testing Be Performed by a Professional?

You want to ensure that if systemic allergic reactions occur, you are in the right hands. Serious allergic reactions can lead to death, and that is why skin prick testing should always be performed by a qualified and licensed specialist.

Who Should Go for a Skin Prick Test?

If you wish to know what foods you are allergic to for good health maintenance purposes, you should visit a qualified dermatologist for a skin prick test. If you also experience allergic symptoms and do not know what causes them, you should also visit a qualified dermatologist.

Why Is Skin Prick Testing the Most Recommended Way of Finding out What You Are Allergic to?

Skin prick testing has relative specificity and sensitivity, it is affordable, it produces rapid results, anyone can tolerate it and you can visually see the reaction and thus get assurance that you are allergic to a particular food (you are involved in the testing).

What Happens During Skin Prick Testing?

• Question and Answer

Your dermatologist asks you various questions like what you think you might be allergic to, your medical history, whether you are currently taking any drugs, whether you have ever had a serious allergic reaction, whether you have any skin conditions, what you have used to remedy various allergies, etc.

These questions are important because they help guide the dermatologist by letting him or her know whether you are a good candidate for skin prick testing and how to safely conduct the skin prick test. Therefore, answer the questions asked as truthfully, accurately and detailed as possible.

• Testing

The dermatologist cleans your arm or back with alcohol and makes different marks where he or she will place a drop of different food substances (It is important to know that skin prick testing can also test for pollen, dust mites, pet dander and mould). Once the substance is placed, the skin is scratched to facilitate entry of the substance.

Two other areas are marked; the first is marked histamine, and the second saline or glycerine. These are compounds that help tell whether the results obtained are correct.

Most people are allergic to histamine; therefore, if you do not react to it, your skin prick test might be inconclusive. A reaction to saline or glycerine shows sensitive skin, meaning the skin prick test should be conducted carefully.

The dermatologist then waits for a reaction to occur and identifies what substances you are allergic to.

Reach out to a dermatologist office, like Darwin Dermatology, for more information.