Does the room feel like it is spinning? Are you experiencing dizziness? Infrared goggles are helpful tools to determine where the vertigo/dizziness is coming from. These goggles have invisible infrared lights that can allow the physical therapist to see how your eyes are moving. How your eyes move gives a lot of information about the cause of the dizziness.
There are special tests performed when these goggles are on to see if the dizziness is coming from the vestibular system (inner ear) or central (brain). These special tests can include looking at how your eyes move when they look in different directions and how your eyes move when you are in different positions.
When someone has been living with dizziness they can learn ways to compensate to not feel so dizzy. This includes fixing their eyes on a target to help decrease the extra eye movement, which then helps not to feel so dizzy. While this may help the person feel better, it can make it harder for the physical therapist to see the eye movements during testing.
This is where these special goggles come in. When you have these goggles on it creates a dark environment while also projecting the eye movements onto a computer screen for the physical therapist to see. This helps prevent the person from fixing their eyes on a target and allows the physical therapist to see how the eyes are moving during different tests. This provides a valuable information, which can ultimately assist in finding the source of the dizziness.
One of the most common reasons for dizziness is BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). This can occur when calcium carbonate crystals find their way into one of the vestibular semicircular canals. When you perform certain movements it gets the crystal moving in the canal which can cause the vertigo.
There are specific maneuvers that can be performed to get the crystal out of the canal. This is where working with a skilled vestibular therapist is very helpful. Since there are three canals the crystal can find its way into it is important that the therapist has a good understanding of which canal needs to be treated (each canal has at least one different repositioning maneuver). The best way to determine this is these googles to be able to tell what direction the eyes are moving in during certain tests.
Liz and Emily, at Engage, received specialized training in vestibular rehabilitation and owns a pair of these goggles. Don't let dizziness stop you for one more day from doing things toy enjoy! Call today to set up an evaluation 315-810-2423.