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Health hotline: Call hotline with allergy questions

AllergyInfo | 6:12 p.m. June 16, 2009

Some additional Allergy information that may be of interest to all.

How do you know what causes your itchy rash?

Using a panel of common allergens, doctors put a small amount on a patch of skin for five to ten days to see whether there is a reaction. It's called patch testing.

Davis and other Mayo researchers patch tested more than 1,500 patients with a series of up to 73 allergens in their study. The top 10 culprits:

Nickel
Gold
Balsam of Peru
Thimerosal (Mercury)
Neomycin sulfate.
Fragrance mix.
Formaldehyde.
Cobalt chloride
Bacitracin
Quaternium 15

Davis reported the findings at an annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in San Francisco.

When a patch test is positive, the best thing for patients to do is to avoid the substance to which they are allergic.

Note on above information. Most of these are in dental materials that are placed in the mouth and may cause an additional immune burden on those allergic to them.

These are delayed allergy responses so you may see the allergy responses days after the dental treatment.

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