How to prepare for an allergy consultation and what to expect?

Welcome to Dr Pieter de Waal’s Allergy Clinic!

We treat patients with and without medical schemes and we accept patients from all over South Africa. We deal with all medical schemes. Reimbursement from your medical scheme will depend on the availability of funds in your day-to-day medical scheme benefit. A card machine is available at the practice, should you prefer the cash paying option.

Appointment.

When booking an appointment, please inform the receptionist of any medicine that you are currently using. Antihistamines and oral steroids may cause allergy skin prick tests to be falsely negative. Therefore, these medicines should be stopped at least five days before your consultation. Furthermore, bring ALL your medication and inhaler devices with you to the consultation. A thorough inspection of these by your doctor is of utmost importance. When a suspected reaction occurred to food or snacks in a packet, tin, or container, also bring these along to the consultation. This will allow your doctor to study food labels of the specific food in question and identify possible additives (e.g. preservatives) that may have been responsible for your allergic reaction. Also bring all previous blood and other test results with you to the consultation. A referral letter by your General Practitioner or regular doctor maybe required by your medical scheme prior to your consultation – please confirm this with the receptionist when making your appointment.

Covid-19

During the current Covid-19 pandemic, you and your child will be “screened” before you may enter the hospital. Please arrive at the hospital about 30 minutes prior to your consultation, to allow adequate time for this. You and your child should wear a face mask. Consultations are well-spaced during the day, to prevent overcrowding of the waiting room. Minimal waiting times before consultations are important, so please arrive on time. Equipment to sanitize your hands, are available directly outside and inside the consulting rooms. Please bring your child’s own toys, to ensure unnecessary exposure to infections.

Consultation

We will do our utmost best to make your consultation a pleasant and child friendly experience. During the consultation, your doctor will take a good history, after which a thorough clinical examination will take place. In children older than four months of age and in adults, this will, in most instances be followed by an allergy skin prick test on one of the forearms. It will only be done after thorough explanation and your consent. Testing for grass pollen, maize pollen, house dust mite, cockroach, cat, dog, and mold, are routinely done at this practice. Food allergy skin prick test include milk, egg white, peanut, soy, fish, and wheat. Fresh products (milk, soy, egg, and peanut), may also be used. The skin prick test is not painful, and is merely a superficial prick of the skin, after which a drop of the allergen (in liquid form) is placed on the skin. After about 20-minutes, a wheal and flare reaction to a specific allergen will be measured.

The allergy skin prick test on the forearm.

If a skin prick test extract is not available, your doctor may request a blood test, measuring antibodies to a specific allergen in question.

A Peak Flow measurement will be performed in patients suffering from asthma. This is a simple in-office test, where the patient blows as hard and fast as possible into a Peak Flow Meter, allowing the detection of obstruction of airflow. Generally, and as requested by your medical scheme, lung function testing (for asthmatic patients) will be performed.

An allergy consultation will, on average, last for one hour. At the end of the consultation, the doctor will spend time on allergy avoidance education. He will also explain how to use your medicine and how to use your inhaler devices if you suffer from asthma. Registering chronic medicine (e.g. for asthma) with your medical scheme, will also take place. Should it be necessary, a definite follow up appointment date will be arranged, and a feedback-letter will be written to your referring doctor. Discussion of blood tests and other results may occur telephonically with you after the consultation or may take place during a follow up visit. Please call the office anytime after the consultation, if any outstanding test results should be discussed with you.

As this is a specialty asthma and allergy practice, we strive to provide a high standard of up-to-date allergy care, in line with treatment standards worldwide.