Vertigo and dizziness are often hard to diagnose, and they can be the result of previous sports injuries, inner-ear problems, or concussions. Once diagnosed, treatment for BPPV in Toronto or surrounding area can be facilitated with much success –but how does one know when their dizziness can be treated?
What Causes Vertigo or Dizziness?
First, let’s take a look at what causes vertigo and dizziness. BPPV is often the result of problems affecting the inner ear balance structures. Viral infections and inflammation, recent use of antibiotics, Prior injuries can cause dizziness. Extreme mental stress, or side effects of medication can cause dizziness. It is important to know that not every dizziness is vertigo. Vertigo or BPPV is a benign condition and commonly is acute and really disturbing and is easily treatable, however, a chronic state of dizziness can be more difficult to manage after BPPV is subsided. Most of the time, vertigo is treatable with physiotherapy.
It is surprising for many that the human body is a powerful machine that can correct itself, even when damage to the delicate mechanisms that assist in proper balance are permanently damaged. Treatment helps the body cope with its situation, and work through it.
Vertigo is most commonly known as Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). It sounds like a frightening term, but you can rest easy; often symptoms of dizziness lessen after only one or two treatments with a physiotherapist.
How Can I Cure or Manage Vertigo?
Vertigo word cloud concept
The most common and successful treatment of vertigo is a series of manual maneuvers called re-positioning. The most known of which is called Epley maneuver. It is important to know that Epley is only effective if the dizzy symptoms are originated from particular canals in the vestibular system. A physiotherapist or other trained health care practitioners will assess your symptoms and determine what canal is involved before they decide what maneuver is applicable in your case. If dizziness symptoms persist, then a rehabilitation program called Vestibular Rehabilitation (VRT) will be a course of treatment to retrain your brain to help the brain to learn how to adjust to the new information.
Vestibular Rehabilitation is typically performed on an outpatient basis, meaning that it is less common that vertigo will need to be treated in a hospital.
So, no hospital, and your body can correct itself without the use of surgery or drugs thanks to physiotherapy.
In addition to physiotherapy treatment for vertigo, patients will also be prescribed a number of exercises that they can do at home.
How Can I Determine if My BPPV Can Be Treated with Physiotherapy?
In order to find out if your specific case of spinning, imbalance, or dizziness can be treated with physiotherapy, it is important to speak to your primary healthcare provider or a licensed physical therapist with advanced post-graduate training who can refer you to a proper course of treatment.
Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy starts off with a clinical assessment that includes a series of tests that evaluate the vertigo sufferer’s eye movements, coordination, posture, medical history, factors in their environment, the severity of their symptoms, balance, and precipitating circumstances (what leads up to moments where they feel dizzy) –as well as any hearing or vision problems they may have experienced in the past.
Once all tests are completed, it will be easy to figure out if you have a form of vertigo that is treatable with physiotherapy. If the cause of dizziness is more than floating particles in the inner ear, a referral for more tests such as CT Scan or MRI may be required.
In Summary
It is quite common for dizziness sufferers to suffer anxiety as a result of their symptoms, for fear that their ailment is rooted in some deeper, more frightening health problem.
This is why it is incredibly important to seek proper BPPV testing and treatment from a licensed healthcare practitioner.
If you are suffering from vertigo, don’t wait any longer to seek treatment; visit our Contact Us page to find a dizziness & balance physiotherapy clinic in your area and get treatment right away!
