• Your diagnosis is difficult to establish. Your primary care physician may refer you to an asthma and allergy specialist if you have chronic coughing and/or a runny nose that doesn’t respond to initial treatment, such as cough or cold medications.
• Your diagnosis requires specialized testing. In some cases, your primary care physician may refer you to a specialist for allergy skin testing to confirm his or her suspicion of an underlying allergy, such as allergic rhinitis (hay fever), asthma, atopic dermatitis (eczema), hypersensitivities to certain foods, or allergic insect sting reactions. Other types of specialized tests that involve referring you to a specialist can include diagnostic procedures for asthma, such as spirometry or complete pulmonary function studies, bronchoprovocation or bronchoscopy, and/or further evaluation of your rhinitis with rhinoscopy.
• Your doctor advises you to consider immunotherapy (allergy shots).
• Other conditions complicate your condition or its diagnosis. Those conditions may include sinusitis, nasal polyps, severe rhinitis, gastroesophageal reflux (GER), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), vocal cord problems, or aspergillosis (a fungal infection that can affect your lungs).
• You’ve experienced a previous emergency room visit or hospitalization for asthma or anaphylaxis.

Reprinted from Allergies and Asthma for Dummies by William Berger, M.D. Available wherever you buy books.

Find a physician near you! Check out AANMA’s Physician Locator, the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s Allergist Locator, or the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s Physician Referral System.