Balance, Dizziness, Vertigo | Comprehensive Evaluation and Care
Millions of adults and children suffer from vertigo, balance, and dizziness issues. These chronic conditions, which may be caused by inner-ear problems, migraines, neurological conditions or head injuries, can have a serious impact on overall quality of life. Specialists at WMCHealth Physicians: Advanced ENT Services provide diagnostic and therapeutic care for these medical issues in partnership with The Balance Center at Westchester Medical Center. Here, patients may receive care from a board-certified neurotologist, otologist, audiologist, balance therapist or other type of ENT specialist.
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Our Services
Balance problems can stem from a variety of conditions including disease or physical abnormalities. Providers with Advanced ENT Services offer several types of diagnostic testing, as well as therapy services to identify and treat many of these conditions and provide much needed vertigo relief.
The human balance system integrates information from your eyes, feet, and inner ear vestibular organs. These systems work together to keep you balanced. If you are experiencing difficulty with your balance, your symptoms may be a result of a problem in one or more of these areas. To help determine what parts of the balance system may be contributing to your symptoms you may undergo a series of comprehensive balance tests. Balance testing is a painless, non-invasive diagnostic protocol during which your balance systems will be stimulated and responses from those systems will be recorded. Ultimately, these tests will help the physician to accurately diagnose your balance problem and formulate an appropriate plan for vertigo relief and balance and dizziness treatment.
Testing takes approximately two to three hours and is performed by a licensed audiologist. Most patients tolerate balance/inner ear testing quite well. However it is normal to experience an increased feeling of unsteadiness, dizziness, turning sensation, or nausea. Testing may include:
- Computerized Dynamic Virtual Posturography:
- The Balance Center at Westchester Medical Center has an advanced virtual reality system that allows for both assessment and treatment of vestibular and balance deficits. With the use of a headset, this equipment can place individuals into various simulated environments and challenge their balance and inner ear systems. It can also perform Posturography testing to determine a patient’s areas of strengths and weaknesses. It allows an in-depth assessment of an individual's somatosensory, visual and vestibular systems. This information helps us guide treatment sessions performed at our facility.
You will stand on a platform that measures how well you can maintain your balance. The platform and walls move back and forth slightly at times during the test. The audiologist will explain what will happen before each set of movements. You will be wearing a safety harness to protect you from falling. See it in action | Ensure you can safely use this product
- Rotational Vestibular Testing (RVT):
- During RVT, or rotary chair testing, the patient sits in the dark for a short period of time, talking to the audiologist, while the chair slowly swivels from side to side at different speeds. Video goggles are worn to record eye movements, which are driven by the inner ear balance organs when the head is moving from side to side.
These movements are driven by your balance organs whenever your head is moving.
The RVT system greatly increases your provider’s ability to detect subtle vestibular abnormalities not identified by other test modalities.
- Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP):
- VEMP testing evaluates the saccule of the inner ear and the inferior vestibular nerve. Electrodes are attached to the forehead and neck and earphones are placed in ears. While listening to a series of clicks, the patient lifts and turns the head. VEMP is used to diagnose superior canal dehiscence and inferior vestibular nerve disorders.
- Videonystagmography:
- You will be sitting with either video goggle over your face or with surface electrodes placed around your eyes. First, you will be asked to follow moving lights while your eye movements are recorded. Second, you will be asked to move into a few different body positions while on an exam table. During the last part of the test, a mild stream of warm and cool air is delivered to your ear canal for a brief time while you are lying down. This does not cause discomfort, but it is normal to feel a sense of movement for a minute or two with this stimulation. See it in action.
- Vestibular and Balance Therapy:
- In vestibular and balance rehabilitation, patients work one-on-one with a balance therapist in an exercise program designed specifically for each patient to lessen the severity of dizziness, vertigo and balance problems and to decrease the risk of fall or injury. Your provider can tell you more about exercises for vertigo, medication for vertigo dizziness, and other vertigo treatments.
Some or all of these services may be beneficial in diagnosing, improving or resolving your specific symptoms. In most cases, your referring physician will recommend initial testing and our providers will offer feedback to your doctor regarding the next best steps for evaluation and balance or dizziness treatment.
Schedule a Consultation With a Balance Specialist Near You
For more information about balance testing and therapies, please call 914.493.4634. Please fill out this brief form to request an appointment.
A representative from WMCHealth Physicians Advanced ENT Services will call you at the phone number you include on this form. We accept most insurances including Medicare and Medicaid; please be sure to ask the practice representative who calls you if we accept your insurance plan. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Phone: 914.493.4634
Fax: 914.493.7853