HEENT stands for “head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat.” If someone is experiencing symptoms that affect those areas, such as sneezing, congestion, and a sore throat, they’ll likely receive a HEENT examination. A HEENT exam for allergies is performed by a healthcare provider, typically during a physical examination, and focuses on checking the head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat.

Chances are, you have already had a HEENT exam. If a healthcare provider pressed on your sinuses, looked into your ears, and made you stick out your tongue and say “ahhhh” (among other things), you might be one of these people.

So what are healthcare providers looking for in a HEENT exam? While each provider likely performs this exam a bit differently depending on your symptoms and his or her personal preferences, here are some things providers might assess.^1,2  

• Head (and Neck): Providers may examine and touch your head for tenderness, visible or palpable masses, depressions, and/or scarring. They may also look for parasites, trauma, and more, and they may press on lymph nodes, sinuses, and the thyroid gland to check for abnormalities.
• Eyes: A quick vision check for acuity and peripheral vision may be performed. In addition, providers may examine your mucus membranes, color of the normally white outer layer of the eyeballs, movement of eye muscles, pupils, cornea, reactivity to light, and more.
• Ears: Along with assessing obvious indications of hearing loss, healthcare providers might inspect for ear infections and look for swelling, discharge, and tenderness in the ear canal, as well as excessive ear wax, ear drum issues, and exterior skin abnormalities, among other things.
• Nose: When it comes to the nose, providers may check to see if mucosa is pink and moist and look for discharge. The exam may also involve sinus assessments.
• Throat/Mouth: An oral and throat exam, which often includes the “say ahh” request, helps providers gauge the condition of the tongue, tonsils, lips, gums, teeth, cheeks, and back of the throat.

Cold, flu, and allergies share several HEENT-related symptoms. So you’ll need a healthcare provider to develop a true diagnosis. That said, according to a newsletter from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, each of these conditions has key symptoms that set it apart from others.³

The first step in treating your symptoms is often to first understand their cause. After all, while cold, flu, and allergy symptoms may be similar, colds and flu are caused by viruses, and allergy symptoms are triggered by exposure to allergens, such as pollen, mold, pet dander, dust mites, cockroaches, and more.

However, a simple blood test along with your symptom history and physical exam may help your healthcare provider differentiate between allergy symptoms and those of colds and flu. And almost any healthcare provider can order one.

To prepare for a healthcare visit, you can complete our symptom tracker, which will generate a comprehensive symptom profile you can then review with your healthcare provider to decide if a specific IgE blood test is right for you.