Vestibular Rehabilitation

What is Vestibular Rehabilitation?
The vestibular system is located in the brain and inner ear, and is in charge of eye movement and general balance. When vestibular disorders occur, individuals can have issues with imbalance, dizziness, vertigo, and more. Vestibular rehabilitation therapy or VRT primarily targets vestibular conditions. Through customized exercise programs, vestibular rehabilitation helps patients regain their normal quality of life.

Vestibular Rehabilitation Goals
– Sensory Compensation: It is difficult to rebuild function after vestibular system damage, which is why VRT exercise programs focus on compensation rather than restoration. This means teaching the body to depend more on other senses aside from sight to help counter their visual issues.
– Habituation Exercises: For symptoms that occur due to self-motion such as dizziness or nausea, VRT employs habituation exercises. Habituation exercises aim to provoke the dizziness symptoms in patients repeatedly over time, with the goal of teaching the brain to ignore dizziness signals.

What does Vestibular Rehabilitation treat?
Vestibular rehabilitation is a direct counter for vestibular disorders that make it difficult or impossible to engage in everyday life. This includes issues such as imbalance, gaze instability, dizziness, chronic falling, and vertigo. Other issues arise due to these conditions, such as fatigue, concentration and focus problems, vomiting, and nausea.