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What Causes Dizziness?
Dizziness is one of the most common symptoms that cause people to seek medical care. One of these five conditions is to blame in many cases.
Balance Training and Vestibular Therapy
Our therapists offer the latest balance training and vestibular rehabilitation techniques to help you regain mobility and stability.
The vestibular system located in your inner ear provides your brain with information about head position and spatial orientation of your body. This critical system helps you maintain your sense of balance, and when something goes wrong, it can lead to vertigo and other debilitating conditions that affect your quality of life—and which can increase your risk of injury. At Henry Ford Health, our balance training specialists and vestibular therapists can help you regain mobility and stability while reducing your risk for falls and injuries, so you can perform daily activities safely and with more confidence.
Balance training and vestibular therapy: Why choose Henry Ford Health?
- Whole-person care: Our balance training specialists and vestibular rehab therapists evaluate all the ways an injury or health condition is affecting your life. This includes assessing physical, mental and emotional barriers before working with you to develop a personalized care plan.
- Experienced team: You receive care from highly skilled experts who are always learning new and better ways to provide treatment. Our therapists undergo advanced training to address balance issues related to brain and inner ear injuries.
- Convenient access: With locations throughout southeast and south central Michigan and the greater Flint area, we make it easy to get the balance training and vestibular rehab care you need. Our large staff and extensive network mean you can get timely treatment near home, work or school.
- Integrated care: Your balance training and vestibular rehabilitation team collaborates with your referring neurologist, otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat doctor, or ENT) or primary care provider. We work together to adjust your care plan as needed, so you can get the most effective treatment.
FAQs about balance training and vestibular therapy at Henry Ford Health
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What Conditions Do You Treat in Your Vestibular Rehab Program?
You may develop poor balance with age, or if there’s pressure on the vestibular nerve. Damage to your temporal lobe or displacement of tiny crystals in the ear (otoconia) can also cause vestibular issues. Our balance training and vestibular rehabilitation team treats a wide range of conditions that may affect your brain’s balance center, including:
- Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) or positional vertigo
- Chronic dizziness
- Concussion or head injury
- Inner ear dysfunction
- Ménière’s disease
- Stroke
- Vestibular neuritis (disorder affecting a nerve in the inner ear)
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What Balance Training and Other Treatments Do You Offer?
Our balance training and vestibular rehab team collaborates to provide a variety of treatments. We may recommend a combination of physical therapy and occupational therapy for balance and vestibular disorders:
- Fall prevention: Our therapists evaluate your fall risk and provide equipment or techniques to increase your safety and stability.
- Gait and balance training: Our therapists work on your posture, as well as the way you walk, stand and bend. We help you change your body mechanics to reduce balance problems.
- Habituation exercises: We use repetition to teach the brain not to trigger dizziness with certain movements.
- Head repositioning maneuvers: We move your head in different ways to relocate displaced ear crystals. Crystals will often shift to areas of the ear where they don’t cause vertigo or dizziness.
- Sensory-motor retraining: We help you respond to stimuli, such as a moving object, in safe ways. Our therapists will teach you adaptation strategies to maintain your balance and stability.
- Visual and vestibular exercises: These gaze stabilization exercises involve the head, neck, shoulders and eyes, and can help reduce feelings of dizziness.
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What Do I Need to Start Vestibular Rehab?
- Get a referral: A referral for vestibular therapy that’s dated and has been signed by a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner within the last 90 days.
- Make an appointment: With this referral, you can schedule an appointment by calling one of our locations, or through your Henry Ford MyChart account.
- Provide your information: Either way, our team will gather information from you about your condition and referring provider, and will also verify your insurance coverage.
- Start your treatment: Then you’ll be paired with the most appropriate therapist for your needs and start your vestibular rehabilitation.
You should also plan to attend regularly scheduled therapy appointments to ensure that you get the most out of treatment.
Is It Vertigo?
People may experience vertigo symptoms differently and often deal with a combination of sensations at once.