Balance Disorders

Diagnosing a Balance Disorder

Our team works to assess how the eyes, ears, and muscles and nerves work together to make sense of balance information. Our Otolaryngology and Audiology experts will evaluate how the ears may contribute to a patient’s balance problem. Your provider will ask some questions about your symptoms:

• What do you feel when you get your symptoms (e.g.: room-spinning, unsteadiness, swaying)?
• How long do your symptoms last? How often do your symptoms occur?
• Are there other symptoms that go along with your dizziness or imbalance (e.g.: headache, changes in hearing, nausea, panic)?
• Describe what seems to cause your symptoms and what relieves your symptoms.
• When did your symptoms begin? Were there any other health events around the time your symptoms began (e.g.: flu-like symptoms, head trauma, medication changes)?
• Do you have any other long-term health conditions? Do you have any hearing loss or other concerns with your ears?

Testing for Balance Disorders

Testing may help in diagnosing a variety of balance disorders including, but not limited to: 

• Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)
• Vestibular neuritis
• Labyrinthitis
• Superior semi-circular canal dehiscence
• Meniere’s disease
• And many others

Tests used to diagnose balance disorders include: 

Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction in Balance (MCTSIB), during which you will be asked to stand in various conditions (with eyes open or closed on firm and soft surfaces.) This helps your doctor to see how the eyes, ears, and muscles work together to keep you upright.

Vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP), during which will listen to a repeated sound and asked to shift your head in different directions while wearing sensors on your skin. This test helps your doctor learn if each ear responds to balance information equally. It is also useful for identifying any physical or structural issues in the balance parts of the inner ear.

Video Head Impulse Tests (vHIT) allow your doctor to see how the balance system responds to quick head movements. You will wear a set of goggles to track eye movements while your provider moves your head.

Videonystagmography assesses control of your eye movements. During this test, you will wear goggles that track your eyes as you follow a target on a screen.

Treating a Balance Disorder

Balance disorders can be complex. However, once the cause or causes are understood, management and therapy can improve symptoms. Treatments may include:

• Specific maneuvers of the head performed by the provider
• Vestibular physical therapy
• Surgical procedures
• Medication

UR Medicine provides the highest level of care for patients with vestibular disorders. Vestibular testing, hearing evaluations, clinical consultation with ear, nose, and throat (ENT) providers, and vestibular physical therapy are all available at the same convenient location in the Rochester metropolitan area and surrounding region.

Our outpatient clinic offers the most up-to-date, evidence-based evaluation, treatment, and management approaches. UR Medicine providers are sought for their expertise in rare and complex hearing and balance issues.