Feel as if the room is spinning around you? If so, your ears could be to blame.
While there are many reasons why someone may experience dizziness, from a drop in blood sugar to stress, we're going to take a look at how the ears can affect your balance. There are a variety of conditions and infections that not just affect the ears but also your balance. These are issues that our McKinney, TX, ENT doctor Dr. Andrew Senchak can treat.
Many causes of dizziness are the result of an inner ear problem. Feeling dizzy or lightheaded? It could be,
Meniere's disease
This chronic inner ear disorder, which typically affects young or middle-aged adults, can lead to bouts of vertigo (spinning or twirling sensation). Usually, this condition affects one ear. Along with vertigo, you may also experience ringing in the ear, changes in hearing or fullness/pressure in the ears.
Labyrinthitis
This inner ear disorder occurs when one of the vestibular nerves within the inner ear becomes inflamed. Since the vestibular nerves are responsible for spatial awareness and balance, inflammation of the nerves can lead to dizziness, hearing loss and nausea. Sometimes labyrinthitis is brought on by an inner ear infection.
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
This is usually the most common cause of dizziness and symptoms can be triggered by changes in head position such as standing up too quickly. Those with diabetes, previous head injuries or another inner ear disorder may be prone to BPPV. Symptoms of BPPV include,
- Dizziness
- Lightheadedness
- Unbalanced
- Blurry vision
- Nausea and vomiting
- Loss of balance
Migraines
You may be surprised to hear that dizziness is actually one of the leading causes of dizziness. If you have been diagnosed with migraines (severe headaches), particularly migraines with auras, then you may also experience bouts of dizziness and vertigo. Symptoms can last anywhere from a few minutes to several days. If you deal with severe, debilitating headaches then you could have migraines.
Since dizziness has many different causes it's important for our ENT doctor to examine you here at his McKinney, TX, practice to run the appropriate diagnostic tests to rule out certain conditions while also making a definitive diagnosis. The most common tests include an Electrocochleography (ECoG) or a videonystagmogram, which tests the inner eye and central motor functions, as well as eye movement.
If you suspect that your dizziness may be caused by an inner ear problem then call our ENT team at (469) 678-2211 to schedule an evaluation. Trust your ear, nose and throat health to the experts at Texas Ear and Vestibular Institute.