Brushing Your Allergies Away

Derek Lacarrubba was allergic to New York City.

Lacarrubba, 31, got stuffed up around cats, dogs, three kinds of dust mites and several varieties of native New Yorkers - trees, that is. He couldn`t sleep. He had trouble going to the gym. And as an attorney, he was too busy to commit to the years-long treatments doctors typically recommend: weekly shots at the doctor`s office or holding liquid drops under his tongue for a few minutes every morning.

That`s when he found Dr. William Reisacher, an ear, nose and throat doctor at Weill Cornell Medical College, who developed an allergy toothpaste to help people like Lacarrubba. The toothpaste, called Allerdent, which Dr. Reisacher is testing in clinical trials, is designed to seamlessly integrate into patients` everyday routines, boosting their immunity to the very airborne substances that cause allergy sufferers to sneeze, cough, wheeze, drip and tear. It contains an extra ingredient other toothpastes lack - extracts of common airborne allergens, among them, trees, grass, dust, mold, cats, dogs, cockroaches and feathers. By exposing patients to these allergens in a controlled way, he hopes they will develop a greater immunity to them and be able to withstand them for longer periods of time.