If you’ve been dealing with frequent dizziness, vertigo or other balance issues, your next step may be vestibular therapy. As with starting any kind of specialty care, it can be overwhelming to discern your best option, especially if you want to stay local. Here are some tips for finding a vestibular therapist to help you get back on your feet!
First, the Basics of Vestibular Therapy
To make an informed decision, it helps to know a bit about vestibular therapy. Let’s go over some of the basics.
What Is Vestibular Therapy and Why Would I Need It?
Vestibular therapy, sometimes also called vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT), is a specialized form of physiotherapy that focuses on the patient’s sense of balance. It can help reduce frequent dizziness and address balance disorders.
Patients are referred to vestibular therapy if they are diagnosed with a balance disorder or otherwise struggle with balance and unsteadiness. A balance test can help determine the root cause of the balance issue. Our previous blog post listed several balance disorders and other conditions that can impact the vestibular system; check it out here.
What Is a Vestibular Therapist?
Vestibular therapists are balance specialists. However, it’s worth noting that many parts of the body work together to create our sense of balance. Certainly, there’s the vestibular system, a network of organs housed in the inner ear that orient your body to its surroundings and sense how you’re moving, but there’s also your eyes, ears, brain and muscles. Since all these things work so closely together, you can get balance help from a number of medical professionals, including audiologists, ENTs, ophthalmologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, physiotherapists and much more.
What Does Vestibular Therapy Involve?
Your balance specialist will teach you several exercises that can train and strengthen balance. The exercises will depend on your personal balance issues, but they may include:
- Head maneuvers
- Gaze stabilization
- Lower body muscle strengthening
- Gait corrections
You’ll learn these exercises with your therapist, and then they may ask that you do these exercises at home a couple of times a day.
Vestibular therapy may also include lifestyle changes, diet changes, medications and other treatment options.
How to Choose a Balance Specialist
Just like with choosing any health care professional, you may want to look up the education, training and credentials of any potential vestibular therapist you could partner with. You may also want to note how long they’ve been practicing and read through patient reviews.
We also recommend finding a vestibular therapist who is in an area relevant to your symptoms. If your balance issues stem from an issue with the inner ear, for example, a vestibular therapist who works at an audiology clinic may be a great fit.
Balance at Southwestern Hearing & Balance
At Southwestern Hearing & Balance, we have a team that can provide balance testing and help you build a customized treatment plan to help you feel steady again. If you want to learn more about our team and how we can help you with your vestibular therapy needs, call today!