Vertigo and Dizziness Physiotherapy in Adelaide

Vertigo is not the same as feeling faint or light-headed. It is the specific sensation that you, or the room, are spinning — and it is one of the few conditions where a physiotherapist can often identify the cause in a single appointment.

The most common cause is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), where small crystals that normally sit in one part of the inner ear move into a balance canal where they do not belong. Rolling over in bed, looking up at a shelf or tipping your head back at the hairdresser sets the room spinning for twenty or thirty seconds. It is unpleasant, it is common, and it responds to a specific physical treatment rather than to medication.

What happens at a vertigo assessment

We take a careful history first, because the pattern matters more than the sensation. How long each episode lasts, what movement brings it on, whether there is hearing change or ringing, whether it came on after a head knock or an illness — these separate the common causes from the ones that need a doctor rather than a physiotherapist.

We then use positional testing — most often the Dix-Hallpike test, where we move your head and shoulders into a particular position and watch your eyes. Involuntary eye movement in a characteristic direction tells us which ear and which canal is involved. It is uncomfortable for the half-minute it lasts, and it is the single most useful piece of information in the whole appointment.

Treatment for BPPV

If testing points to BPPV, treatment is a sequence of head and body positions — the Epley manoeuvre is the best known — designed to move the displaced crystals back where they belong. It takes a few minutes and it is done in the same appointment as the assessment.

Many people improve substantially after one or two treatments. Some need several, and some have a recurrence months or years later, which is normal for this condition and not a sign that the first treatment failed. We will show you what to do at home and what to avoid in the day or two afterwards.

Dizziness that is not BPPV

Not all dizziness is vertigo, and not all vertigo is BPPV. Dizziness can come from the neck, from blood pressure, from medication, from migraine, from anxiety, and from inner-ear conditions that need medical management. Part of the value of an assessment is finding out which category you are in.

Where the cause sits outside physiotherapy, we will say so and tell you who to see. Where the neck is contributing — cervicogenic dizziness, which often travels with neck pain and headache — that is squarely physiotherapy work, and we treat it alongside the neck itself.

When to see a doctor first, not us

Some symptoms need medical assessment before physiotherapy. Go to your GP or an emergency department rather than booking with us if dizziness arrives with any of the following: sudden severe headache, double vision or loss of vision, slurred speech, weakness or numbness on one side, difficulty walking that is new, new hearing loss, or dizziness that follows a significant head injury.

This is not us being cautious for the sake of it. These patterns can indicate something that needs urgent care, and a physiotherapy appointment would delay it.

Booking and cost

A vertigo assessment is a standard initial consultation — $98, or $49 for new patients booking with Saloni. If your GP has referred you under a Chronic Condition Management Plan, the session is fully bulk billed: bring the referral and your Medicare card and there is no gap and no out of pocket cost.

We are at 177 Trimmer Parade, Seaton, with free parking at the door and evening appointments available. If driving yourself while dizzy is not sensible, bring someone — or ask us about a home visit.

Common questions