We require a referral from a Medical Doctor, Nurse Practitioner, Dentist, or Optometrist. We will contact you to book the appointment. Please be aware that our wait times do vary based on urgency.

You will receive a questionnaire through the patient portal prior to your appointment. We ask that you fill this out to the best of your ability, so that we may receive detailed information about your allergies and medical problems. At your appointment, you will meet with a nurse to go through additional information on the questionnaire. If allergy testing is warranted, the nurse will perform this based on the history provided. Once this is done, the doctor will meet with you. We ask that you prepare to be here for 2-3 hours.

Part of your allergy assessment may include skin prick testing. There are certain medications that can interfere with these results. Please avoid the following 5 days prior to your testing:

(a) Avoid antihistamines for 5 days prior to this appointment. This includes allergy medications as well as cough and cold preparations.
If you are unable to stop antihistamines (eg. for chronic hives), Do NOT stop your antihistamines and DO KEEP your appointment with us. If testing is required, your Allergist will discuss options to be safely tested.

(b) Cough and cold medications containing “diphenhydramine” or any antihistamine.

(c) Dymista nasal spray

However, if you are unable to discontinue any of these medications, please still attend our appointment. We may be able to do testing through blood work in lieu of skin testing.

We use a Multi-Test Pain Control Device that limits discomfort. Since patients have different pain tolerance, it is difficult to answer this. The common response from patients is that it doesn’t hurt, but you will transiently feel the device applying pressure to your skin. We routinely test very young children without difficulty. If you react to the testing, you will get an itchy swollen bump at the site.

We have the most common environmental allergens available.

Foods are tested based on the history given, but please be aware that skin testing does NOT evaluate for intolerances or sensitivities. Our testing is to assess for one form of reaction to foods i.e. IgE food allergies.

Before we can do an oral challenge for food, you will need to come in for an initial consult to obtain a full history about the food reaction, and to do any testing to evaluate for an allergy.

We do require a full history in clinic before we can do any medication testing, so testing may not be done at the initial appointment. We offer numerous drug challenges but Penicillin is the most common.

Yes, you will receive the results of any allergy skin testing we do at the end of the appointment. More importantly, you will get teaching and instruction about what both positive and negative results mean for you and what you can do about it.

At this time, we are not offering patch testing.

If you have significant swelling to mosquito bites, it does not predict anaphylaxis to stings from Hymenoptera species (bees, wasps, etc.). It does not put people at a higher risk of anaphylaxis. Therefore, no testing is available to mosquito bites.

If you have had severe reactions to bees, yellow jacket, hornets, wasps, or other Hymenoptera species, testing may be indicated and will be discussed at your appointment.

If you have questions on how to prepare for your appointment, please call our direct line at 780-784-0920. If we cannot answer you at the time of the call, please do leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We will not however do the consultation during this call as it takes an understanding of your full health condition to do so – and that is what your appointment with us is for.

There is no fee to the patient for the consultation, the process of testing itself, or the interpretation provided as this is covered through Alberta Health.

The materials and extracts used in testing are purchased by the clinic and are NOT paid for by Alberta Health.

The clinic does charge a fee for these materials and extracts that is used at the time of the appointment and testing, and a receipt is provided to the patient. This fee is due at the time of the appointment and only if testing is done or materials used. We do not offer third-party billing as this would increase the administrative charges which then must be recovered from the patient.

If we prescribe treatments such as Subcutaneous Allergy Immunotherapy (Allergy Shots), the patient is responsible for paying us for this treatment which is custom-made for the patient by a third party. We are then responsible for the safety checks etc. and making dosing changes etc. that are required before the patient receives the first dose of the new treatment set with us. We will only order these treatments once payment has been received by us so that we have not paid for a treatment that the patient no longer wishes.

If there are in-office challenges, there is a fee to cover medications used for the purpose of providing the challenge and for ensuring that this is safely accomplished.

Yes, there is free parking on site and overflow free street parking is available.

While we do not recommend this, if a physician or referring practitioner feels warranted, we will see patients in second opinion.