Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy

Published 05/02 2013 06:17PM

Updated 05/02 2013 10:49PM

JOPLIN, MO-- "I've had patients who've had it for months and resolved it in a few minutes." Freeman Physical Therapist Danny Compton is talking about vestibular rehabilitation therapy, or VRT.  It's useful in treating benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV. "With BPPV, it's positional vertigo so if you lay a certain way and turn a certain way then the whole room spins. You really almost cannot stay upright. They have to hang on, they feel like they're falling over."

With BPPV, particles naturally existing in the ear canal break free and disrupt your balance. VRT helps readjust those particles. Adds Compton, "We roll a patient around in a certain sequence and that is to get debris out of their semi circular canals in their inner ear. And we can roll them just a certain way and it usually resolves itself pretty quickly in one or two treatments."
