Allergies: What to do when you have so many?

Red, watery, itchy, scratchy, or burning eyes... It's the season: with pollen, allergies are back. They're ruining the return of warm weather for 15 to 20% of the population, and in half of these allergy sufferers, they cause conjunctivitis, in addition to the often concomitant ENT and respiratory symptoms. Advice on how to best manage these unpleasant symptoms, with ophthalmologist Dr. Hugo Bourdon.

"Allergic conjunctivitis, " he recalls in the preamble, " has a seasonal predominance. It is an ocular inflammation of both eyes that develops cyclically or throughout the year in people who are most allergic." Pollen is not the only cause: dust mites, animal hair and other environmental factors likely to trigger allergies – particularly pollution peaks – can also generate this type of conjunctivitis.

React quickly

"The first thing to do to prevent an allergy from developing is to apply early treatment," advises Dr. Bourdon . "Rinse your eyes with cold saline solution, kept in the refrigerator; it provides more relief. And ask your pharmacist for anti-allergy eye drops."

If symptoms persist beyond 72 hours despite this first treatment, you should consult a doctor: your general practitioner, an allergist or a pulmonologist (in the case of associated ENT or respiratory symptoms), or of course an ophthalmologist.

"He will prescribe more powerful eye drops, and in the most severe cases, corticosteroid treatment, after a clinical assessment."

No particular risk, except…

Allergic conjunctivitis usually has no consequences other than the discomfort it causes.

With one exception: in pre-adolescents or adolescents, vernal conjunctivitis – a chronic swelling of the eye's mucous membrane caused by allergies – can cause damage to the cornea.

The same risk arises from eye rubbing: "It is absolutely essential to avoid it; it can damage the eye, causing a deformation of the cornea which will create astigmatism," warns Dr. Bourdon.

Better safe than sorry…

The best thing to do is to short-circuit eye inflammation at the very first signs. "The ideal is to have a prescription that can be self-initiated at the first symptoms," recommends the specialist. "For the most severe allergies, a basic treatment is put in place, the primary indication of which is to prevent ENT and respiratory problems (asthma), even if it also relieves eye inflammation."

Desensitization treatments (often in the form of sublingual drops taken in increasing doses) are prescribed for ENT and respiratory symptoms but they also work very well on allergic conjunctivitis.