When Should You Consider Seeing a Doctor for Vertigo?

The simple act of getting up and walking around takes several different parts of the body to happen. Your limbs work in concert with your nervous system to move, your eyes to gauge where you are and where you’re going, and the vestibular system in your ears to stay balanced. This system works with your brain and your eyes to keep track of where you are in space.

Balance disorders like vertigo make staying upright more difficult. These problems can be acute or chronic, cause mild, moderate, or severe symptoms, and arise from various causes. Whether or not you need medical attention depends on several factors, so let’s learn more about this illness, the symptoms and causes, and when you should visit us for help.

The medical team at Lake Grove ENT helps the residents of Lake Oswego, Oregon, with a range of needs, including balance issues such as vertigo.

Understanding vertigo

This balance disorder throws off your sense of the environment around you, making it seem like you’re spinning in circles when you’re standing still. It’s symptomatic of many other conditions, and comes in two main types: peripheral and central.

Peripheral vertigo occurs more frequently than central and results from vestibular imbalance. Central vertigo directly affects the central nervous system, leading to issues with walking and severe instability.

Causes and symptoms

The two forms of vertigo can come from various illnesses, injuries, and other conditions, including:

• Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV): calcium debris in your middle ear causes spinning sensations
• Vestibular labyrinthitis: inflammation of the vestibulocochlear nerve due to infection
• Ear conditions: otitis media, otosclerosis, and perilymphatic fistula all lead to vertigo
• Ménière’s disease: abnormal fluid buildup in the inner ear
• Ramsay Hunt syndrome: if you have shingles, the virus can affect the vestibular nerve 

The symptoms vary depending on the conditions that cause them, but dizziness is common, and the two conditions are often confused. In addition to the previously mentioned spinning sensation, you can also experience nausea, vomiting, ringing in your ears (tinnitus), muffled hearing, ear pain, or hearing loss.

Reasons to get medical help

You can experience vertigo for a few seconds or several days, though the shorter time is more common. However, if you deal with it for more than a few hours or have it repeatedly over the next few days, you should give us a visit. Worsening of symptoms also necessitates coming in, especially if there is an increase in symptoms with no signs of them going away.

A lot of problems can lead to vertigo, but the symptoms often don’t last long. When you start dealing with chronic or long-lasting issues with vertigo, make an appointment with the medical staff at Lake Grove ENT.