Contributed by Denise Arceneaux, MCD, CCC-A
Dizziness, imbalance, vertigo, crystals….what does it all
mean? Dizziness is one of the most
common reasons patients see a doctor.
Dizziness will affect approximately 40% of the population at one time or
another in their lifetime. Why do people
get dizzy? There are many answers to
that question. The answers range from
migraines, viruses, buildup of fluids in the inner ear, to tumors on the
hearing nerve, and the list goes on. It
is not always a simple and straight forward reason why you get dizzy and
diagnoses can often be challenging.
A thorough history is necessary for your doctor to determine
the cause of your dizziness in order to treat it. Generally speaking, vertigo is described as a
true sensation of spinning. Likely causes of vertigo are from the inner
ear. Feelings of imbalance and
lightheadedness can often mean the symptoms are caused by something other than the
inner ear. A very common form of
dizziness called BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) is one reason
nearly 20% of all dizzy patients see an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) physician. This form is dizziness is often referred to
as free-floating crystals in the ear.
These particles are freely floating calcium carbonate particles that get
dislodged into the wrong canal in the inner ear. Balance specialists can easily put those
crystals back in place with a simple maneuver in the office called an Epley
Maneuver, or repositioning procedure. It
is important to correctly identify which canal is affected for the proper
procedure to be performed.
Sometimes the
cause of dizziness is a little more complex and patients are sent to an ENTphysician, like the physicians at the Lone Peak Hearing and Balance Center in Draper, a part of ENT Specialists with offices in Salt Lake City, Cottonwood,
and Tooele. The ENTs at ENT Specialists
are highly skilled physicians and surgeons trained to treat disorders of the
ear, nose, throat, head, and neck. The
physicians work closely with audiologists on staff who are trained to assess
hearing and balance problems and assist in the diagnoses of diseases of the ear
that affect hearing and balance.
At the Lone Peak Hearing and Balance Center in Draper, our
specialists utilize state of the art balance equipment to assess hearing and
balance problems. If a patient comes to
us for balance problems, they will often first be given a full diagnostic
audiogram (hearing test) by an audiologist.
Our audiologists are also trained to provide a full balance assessment
that test different aspects of the balance system. Our physicians might order a videonystagmography
(VNG) evaluation which is a video recording of the eyes to determine if the
cause of your dizziness is coming from the central nervous system or one of the
inner ears. The test is quite in depth
and can give the physician quite a bit of information regarding the likely
cause of your dizziness.
The specialists
at Lone Peak Hearing and Balance/ENT Specialists also have the ability to test
for a disorder called endolymphatic hydrops.
The test that is often ordered for that is called an
electrocochleography, or EcochG. This
test assists the physician in the diagnosis of an inner ear disease that causes
dizziness, called Menieres Disease.
If
your physician suspects another disorder to be the cause of your dizziness he
might order a Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential, VEMP. A VEMP is a nerve conduction test that looks at a muscle reflex in the neck and directly points to
a disorder in another portion of the inner ear.
This is a relatively new test that is now available which many clinics
are not doing.
If you or your loved ones
have been plagued with dizziness of some sort, you might want to call the
physicians, physician’s assistant or audiologists at the Lone Peak Hearing and Balance Center or at any one of our Salt Lake offices. Our physicians include, Dr. John Butler, Dr. Justin Gull, Dr. Josh Yorgason; our physician
assistant Kristin Hoopes, PA-C and our audiologists Denise Arceneaux, MCD, and
Stacey Snow, AuD - doctoral candidate.
We are here to help you resolve your dizziness and are confident we can
do that.
