PACIFIC HEARING INC
Balance
Helping Los Angeles with Their Dizziness and Balance Challenges
Until you have experienced dizziness or vertigo, you never realize how debilitating and confidence-shattering it can be.
Whether you’re lying in bed and have a sudden sensation of the room spinning or you are finding yourself falling or losing your balance randomly, it’s an occurrence that can result in you wanting to isolate and spend less time socializing or outside of your places of comfort.
The most common reason for this is Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV), which is a common form of balance disturbance that originates in the inner ear.
With a team of advanced doctors of audiology, we have a leading track record for helping patients with these challenges and helping them to get back to their normal selves.
With many physicians throughout Los Angeles referring balance challenges to us, we’re able to help or guide you with any challenges that you may be facing.
What Do Our Ears Do to Balance Us?
Inside your inner ear are three complex components used in transmitting sound to your brain: semicircular canals, the otolithic organs, and the cochlea. The semicircular canals look like three circular loops. Each is responsible for sensing movement in a different direction or different type in order to signal imbalance to your brain.
As the fluid within these tubes move, the hair cells sense the movement, much like the bubble in a carpenter’s level or plumb. When your brain receives the signals from these hair cells, it signals your body to make the proper adjustments.
Common Symptoms and Causes of Balance Issues
When you are not moving, navigating uneven terrain, or even standing up, you can still experience symptoms of imbalance, dizziness, vertigo, and/or nausea.
These symptoms are common for those with damage or deterioration of structures in the inner ear, causing motion sickness, making sitting or standing complicated, and sometimes producing severe vertigo even when lying down.
These symptoms often relate to various other health conditions, like:
1. Labyrinthitis or Vestibular Neuronitis
An inner ear infection with inflammation in the labyrinth structure of the inner ear, which can produce tinnitus and hearing loss. It is similar to vestibular neuronitis, but hearing loss is not a symptom of vestibular neuronitis.
2. Meniere’s disease
An increase in pressure within the labyrinth structure, Meniere’s disease typically affects only one ear, though rare cases occur in both ears. There is no cure, but medications can help to manage the condition, which has a predictable buildup of pressure before an episode. The condition often disappears naturally after a few years.
3. Perilymph Fistula
Whenever fluid from the inner ear leaks into the middle ear, the condition is referred to as perilymph fistula. The condition is common in relation to a head injury or head surgery, in association with a severe ear infection, or after scuba diving, or can result from a birth defect.
4. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)
5. Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS)
Schedule a Balance Test
Vertigo and nausea can show up out of nowhere, making it difficult to maintain your balance. The cause of these symptoms can relate to problems in the inner ear.
Seeking treatment before the problem causes you to fall and risk severe injury is essential.
The doctors at Pacific Hearing, Inc are experts in diagnosing and treating balance disorders.
To take advantage of our expertise, fill out our “Schedule a Balance Test” form and one of our doctors will call you back to discuss your challenges.
Patient Stories
This is Sarah's Story...
Sarah is the captain of the USA National Deaf Women’s Volleyball team, an actress, motivational speaker and a popular YouTuber that signs songs which have gotten recognition from Lin Manuel Miralda from Hamilton, and The Greatest Showman.
This is Dr. Rachelefsky's Story...
Dr. Rachelefsky was the director of the Executive Care Center for Asthma, Allergy, and Respiratory Diseases, professor of allergy and immunology, and associate director of the Allergy-Immunology Training Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
This is Dr. Beroukhim's Story...
Dr. Beroukhim is an internal medicine physician. She immigrated to America due to an infection, which resulted in her losing much of her hearing. She first visited Dr. Greg, as he was one of the only audiologists on Los Angeles’s list that she could use her UCLA insurance with.
Although she previously had another audiologist, Dr. Beroukhim shared how Dr. Greg’s strong scientific background makes him stand out from the others.
This is David's Story...
David is a highly renowned lawyer that practiced law in California for approximately 50 years, starting his career as a prosecuting attorney with one of his most landmark cases being People v. Cohen, during the Vietnam War. Upon leaving the government, he went on to run a successful litigation practice for around 20 years.
Following the adoption of his second child, David realized how much he enjoyed the life-changing and rewarding process and switched careers to adoption and surrogacy.
This is Cheyenne's Story...
Cheyenne is a 21-year-old student that has been seeing Dr. Greg since seventh grade. Her first encounter with Dr. Greg was different from what she had normally experienced with other audiologists, having had hearing challenges since fourth grade, and numerous hearing assessments.
She shared how she “learned the system”, commenting on how memorization of speech tests became her way of outsmarting the system.
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