Dealing with unsettling symptoms such as vertigo, dizziness, light-headedness, and balance issues can make even the simplest daily task difficult. If you are experiencing these symptoms, finding a solution is important to improve your quality of life and safety.
Vestibular rehabilitation aims to improve these symptoms by focusing on the root cause. A trained and experienced vestibular physiotherapist can support you in understanding dizziness and similar issues and provide personalised treatment to help you find relief. Treatment aims to focus on the processes and regions affected to improve or resolve the problem.
Undertaking vestibular physiotherapy has the potential to improve your symptoms and get you back on track. If you are wondering, ‘what does a vestibular physiotherapist do?’, please read on to learn more.
What Does the Vestibular System do?
Different parts within your brain and ears make up the vestibular system. These complex regions create a sensory mechanism that provides your brain with information about spatial placement, your head position, and motion. This allows you to maintain your balance and enables stable vision when you move your head. This multifaceted system makes a significant difference to your daily life.
When certain parts or processes within the vestibular system are affected by health conditions or injuries, this mechanism can be disturbed in a variety of ways and cause symptoms such as dizziness and a feeling of movement when you are stationary.
Who Can Benefit from Vestibular Physiotherapy?
People who experience vertigo, dizziness, light-headedness, and balance issues may do because of a broad variety of reasons. A vestibular physiotherapist is trained to assess your symptoms and potential underlying causes and determine whether vestibular rehabilitation may help you. Vestibular physiotherapy may support you towards improvement if you deal with symptoms such as:
- Dizziness when moving your head
- Loss of balance when changing positions, such as bending over or rolling when lying down
- Falling after simple movements
Some conditions that may benefit from vestibular rehabilitation include:
- Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
- Vestibular Migraine
- Vestibular Neuritis/Labyrinthitis
- Menieres Disease
- Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD)
- Mal De Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS)
- Bilateral or unilateral vestibular loss
- Post Concussion Syndrome
- Age-related changes
- Acoustic neuroma/Vestibular Schwannoma
- Perilymphatic Fistula
- Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SSCD)
- Cerebellar Ataxia, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons Disease
How Does Vestibular Physiotherapy Work?
A common goal of vestibular physiotherapy is to encourage and train your brain to compensate for the decreased vestibular function through neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a process that involves reorganising the pathways and connections in your brain. This rewiring aims to help your brain function differently so that it can adapt to the changes that are creating issues. If your problem is due to Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, treatment typically involves repositioning manoeuvres to put the otoconia (crystals) back in the right place. Your Vestibular physiotherapist will provide you with appropriate exercises that aim to help you better process incoming balance-related signals.
What Does Vestibular Rehabilitation Involve?
When you begin vestibular rehabilitation, your qualified vestibular physiotherapist will first discuss your symptoms, relevant medical history, and target outcomes. They will then undertake an assessment to evaluate your issues and abilities and identify the cause of the problem. Your vestibular physiotherapist will develop a tailored plan that focuses on your specific needs and goals and begin your treatment which will usually consist of a home exercise program. There will be regular progress assessments, and they will discuss these with you and make any relevant adjustments when required.
There is a range of physiotherapy treatment options for vestibular rehabilitation. The approach your physiotherapist takes will depend on your symptoms and progress. This may include methods such as:
- Canalith repositioning manoeuvres for Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
- Gaze stability exercises
- Habituation exercises to desensitise you to your dizziness.
- Balance exercises
- Education regarding your symptoms and rehabilitation
- Prescription of Supplements
Works Towards Relief with Vestibular Physiotherapy
Living with symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo, and loss of balance can feel scary and overwhelming. These issues may be interfering with the tasks and activities you need and love to do each day and may interfering with daily tasks such as work, social activities or exercise. If you are looking for improvement of these symptoms and your overall well being, vestibular physiotherapy may be advantageous.
Please contact our friendly team to organise your initial consultation. We will set up a session for you with one of our qualified Vestibular Physiotherapists who will carry out a comprehensive assessment and develop a tailored health care plan for you. We are dedicated to helping you find a better quality of life and look forward to meeting you soon.
