After you’ve experienced vertigo, you’ve started moving more carefully, holding onto things, getting up slower, and avoiding the positions you’ve learned will trigger it. You may need vertigo and dizziness treatment near Vienna, VA for what you’re experiencing, but you’re not sure.
What Is the Difference Between Vertigo and Dizziness?
These two words often get used interchangeably, but they describe different experiences. Vertigo is the sensation that you or the room you’re in is spinning or moving but neither actually is. Dizziness is a broad term and can cover lightheadedness, feeling faint, vertigo, unsteadiness or feeling weak, and / or a floating or wobbling sensation without spinning. The distinction is important because they often have different causes and lead to different treatments.
The Inner Ear Is Behind Most Vertigo Cases
Your inner ear handles both hearing and your sense of balance through the vestibular system. When this system is disrupted, which could be caused by things such as a calcium crystal, a viral infection, fluid, or a structural change, your brain receives conflicting signals about where you are in space. Your eyes know that you’re still, but your vestibular system says you’re moving. The result is vertigo.
ENT or Audiologist: Who Provides Vertigo and Dizziness Treatment Near Vienna, VA?
The honest answer is that it depends on what’s causing your symptoms, and sometimes both are involved. An ENT diagnoses and treats the underlying structural, infectious, or medical conditions driving vestibular dysfunction. An audiologist evaluates the functional impact on your hearing and balance and may provide vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Many comprehensive ENT practices have both on staff to handle the full scope of your evaluation and care under one roof.
The Most Frequent Diagnoses Include the Following
Meniere’s disease: Involves abnormal fluid pressure in the inner ear and can lead to episodic vertigo, hearing fluctuation, and ear fullness
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV): Caused by displaced calcium crystals in the inner ear
Migraine-associated vestibular dysfunction: A commonly under-recognized cause of episodic dizziness, often without a headache
Vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis: Prolonged vestibular disruption, usually following a viral illness
What Does an Evaluation Involve?
Your evaluation begins with a detailed history of your episodes, including how they start, how long they last, what triggers them, and whether they’re accompanied by hearing changes, ear fullness, tinnitus, or nausea. A physical exam and tests like the Dix-Hallpike maneuver can identify BPPV on the spot during your appointment. Videonystagmography (VNG) testing measures your eye movement patterns to evaluate vestibular function more thoroughly when the history and exam alone aren’t definitive.
Treatment Options That Work for Most Vestibular Conditions
What’s encouraging about most vertigo conditions is that they’re treatable and many respond well to targeted intervention. BPPV often resolves in a single in-office repositioning session. Meniere’s disease is managed with dietary changes, pressure regulation devices, and in some cases in-office procedures targeting the inner ear. Vestibular neuritis improves with time and vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Migraine-associated vertigo responds to migraine management strategies once the correct diagnosis is established.
What Can You Do Between Appointments to Manage Your Symptoms?
Your provider will give you guidance on activities and positions to avoid while your vestibular system recovers or adapts. Vestibular rehabilitation exercises, which are movements designed to retrain your balance system, are often started early in recovery. They may be continued at home between clinical appointments for conditions where rehabilitation is part of the treatment plan.
Your Quality of Life Is Important, So Visit ENT & Facial Plastic Surgery for Symptom Relief!
Our team provides comprehensive vertigo and dizziness treatment near Vienna, VA with both ENT evaluation and audiology support to find and address the source of your symptoms. Give us a call at 703-448-0005 today, and let’s figure out what’s behind your symptoms and what we can do about it!
