Serving Dunedin
Allergy, Asthma & Chronic Cough Care for Dunedin
Alternate 19 runs from Dunedin’s Main Street straight to our door, where it has become Seminole Boulevard. Bring us the cough, the congestion or the wheeze that will not quit.
One road, no complications
Getting here from Dunedin is genuinely simple. Alternate 19 — Bayshore Boulevard and Broadway through town — runs south through Clearwater and turns into Seminole Boulevard. Stay on it and you reach the Largo Professional Center at 11200 Seminole Blvd, Suite 310. The Pinellas Trail makes the same trip on two wheels, from the Douglas Avenue crossing downtown to the stretch that runs right past our block.
Dunedin residents are frequently sent across the county, or across the bay, for specialty allergy and cough care. This is closer, and it is a full-service clinic rather than a satellite office — testing, interpretation and treatment all happen at this address.
The cough that has outlasted everything
Chronic cough is a serious medical condition with debilitating and disruptive consequences: throat tickle, constant throat clearing, hoarseness, urinary incontinence, anxiety and depression — affecting professional performance, personal relationships and, eventually, social life. People stop going to concerts. They sit at the back at church. They apologize in meetings.
It is also frequently misread. A cough that has lasted months is not a lingering cold and rarely responds to another round of antibiotics. Dr. Mandel Sher is a world-renowned cough expert who has significantly improved cough in more than 8 out of 10 patients, including those who have been coughing for months or years and failed other therapies. He and his cough colleagues recently recognized neurogenic cough, caused by inflamed nerve endings in the back of the throat and respiratory tract.
Sher Allergy patients with persistent cough are seen in the specialized Center For Cough clinic, at this same Largo address. Conditions evaluated there include gastroesophageal acid and non-acid reflux, hoarseness, hypersensitive cough syndrome, laryngeal reflux, neurogenic cough and throat clearing.
How a stubborn cough actually gets diagnosed
Guessing is what makes a cough chronic. The evaluation here is built to look rather than assume:
Rhinoscopy
A flexible fiberoptic scope attached to a bright light lets the physician look directly into the nasal passages and the back of the throat. It is minimally invasive and is very helpful in evaluating persistent cough, reflux, sinusitis, recurrent ear infections, chronic headaches and postnasal drip.
FeNO
A simple breath test that determines how much inflammation is in the lungs, identifying activity for asthma and eosinophilic bronchitis — including cough variant asthma, where cough is the only symptom.
Spirometry
Lung function testing that shows how much air the lungs hold and how fast it moves, comparing your results against values expected for your age, size and sex.
Allergy Skin & Blood Testing
Because postnasal drip from untreated nasal allergy and chronic sinusitis is one of the most common engines behind a cough that will not stop. At Sher Allergy Specialists, your allergy skin tests are personally measured and read by a physician or physician assistant, with physician oversight and interpretation, rather than simply recorded by a technician or medical assistant for later review.
Credentials behind the cough work
Dr. Sher is a Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and is board certified by the American Board of Allergy & Immunology and the American Board of Pediatrics. He is a contributing author in peer-reviewed medical journals, including published chronic cough research in Lancet Respiratory Medicine and the European Respiratory Journal, and serves on the respiratory and cough committees of the American College and American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
A board-certified Allergist/Immunologist is on site for every visit.
Coastal Dunedin, and everything else we treat
Dunedin’s waterfront and the causeway out to Honeymoon Island put a lot of residents in daily contact with Gulf air. In red tide bloom years the irritants carried in sea spray commonly cause coughing, throat irritation and wheezing, and asthma patients feel it first. Waterfront homes and older bungalows in a humid climate also hold indoor mold and dust mites year round, which is a very different exposure from the oak and other tree pollen inland. Due to multiple factors, including climate change, that tree pollen season has become longer and more symptomatic, and pine trees generally do not cause significant respiratory allergy. Family cats and dogs can also cause respiratory allergies year-round.
Beyond cough, we diagnose and treat the full range of allergic and immune conditions — asthma of all types, nasal and environmental allergy, sinusitis and nasal polyps, eye allergy, hives, eczema, food allergy, drug allergy, stinging insect allergy and immune deficiency disorders — with treatment options from allergy shots and the oral immunotherapy pill through biologic therapy and environmental control.
Questions from Dunedin patients
How long does a cough have to last before it is worth a specialist visit?
If it has outlasted the illness that seemed to start it, or if it has been going on for weeks with no clear explanation, it is worth evaluating. Chronic cough is treated here as a serious condition with real consequences, not as a symptom to wait out.
What is neurogenic cough?
It is cough caused by inflamed nerve endings in the back of the throat and respiratory tract — recently recognized by Dr. Sher and his cough colleagues. It explains a large share of coughs that never respond to reflux medication, antibiotics or inhalers, because none of those address the nerve.
Is rhinoscopy uncomfortable?
It is a minimally invasive examination with a thin flexible scope, done in the office during your visit. It allows a far more thorough look at the nose, throat and larynx than an external exam, and it can identify fixed blockages such as a deviated septum or nasal polyps.
Does red tide affect people who do not have asthma?
It can. The irritants in the sea spray during a bloom commonly cause coughing and throat irritation in otherwise healthy people, and provoke a stronger reaction in people with asthma or chronic respiratory conditions. If bloom weeks reliably knock you down, that belongs in your evaluation.
How far is the drive, realistically?
From downtown Dunedin it is a straight southbound run on Alternate 19 through Clearwater and Largo — the same road, all the way, ending at 11200 Seminole Blvd #310 with parking on site.
Ready to stop coughing?
Call our friendly Sher Allergy team at 727-397-8557. Bring the history of what has already been tried — it makes the visit faster and better.
Largo Professional Center
11200 Seminole Blvd #310
Largo, FL 33778
Monday 8:00 - 5:00
Tuesday 9:00 - 6:00
Wednesday 8:00 - 5:00
Thursday 8:00 - 5:00
Friday 8:00 - 12:00