First appointment with ENT for vertigo. What to expect?

[GingerFish]

Just wondering if anyone else on here has been to the ENT dept for vertigo? I have my first appt in a couple of days and I am terrified! Don't know what tests to expect on the first day. What happened at your first ENT appt for dizziness or vertigo? My GP suspects I maybe have BPPV or Meineres Disease (my mum has that)

[GingerFish]

GingerFish… my initial ENT examinations for dizziness/vertigo were quite painless. Mine first entailed my seeing an audiometric technician in a completely soundproofed anechoic room and having my audible range checked. This involved wearing a pair of headphones and listening for various sounds in either or both ears at different frequencies. When I could hear them I had to press a hand-held button. The only strange part of this was the anechoic room being a little disorientating because it’s absolutely silent with no reflected sound. This part of the examination took about fifteen minutes.

The ENT doctor (an otologist) asked me a lot of questions about what my dizziness felt like, when it happened, how long it lasted etcetera. Then he looked into either ear with an illuminated otoscope (the same as your GP uses) and also checked both my throat and eyes (balance problems are often associated with the mechanism which controls the eyeballs’ movement). He puffed some air from a rubber bulb into each ear and watched for any reaction. He then gently rotated my head with his hands in various directions, closely watching my eyes and expression for signs of discomfort or onset of dizziness/vertigo. He also listened carefully to the small sounds my neck made while he did this (he used a stethoscope as part of this) . He then laid me down on an examination table and carried out the same manipulations again, but more vigorously in an attempt to provoke dizziness/vertigo. Again, he watched my eye movements very closely.

Finally, he carried out several abrupt manipulations in which he moved me from sitting to lying and back again very quickly, again watching for a reaction in my eyes or expression. He then asked me to stand and walk a few steps away from him and back again (he was looking for unsteadiness of gait). Then he asked me to stand with my feet together and eyes closed while he counted to twenty. This was the most unsettling part because I thought I would fall, even though he reassured me he would catch me if I did. Once he’d ascertained I was ok and without any residual dizziness, I was allowed to go. My examination took about twenty minutes.

I must admit that I felt nauseous and strangely anxious after all of this. The nurse said this was perfectly normal because the examination brings about a type of mild seasickness in many people.

Thanks for such a detailed reply! Really grateful for all the info you have added. When the consultant checked your throat, did they use the instrument that goes up your nose with a camera at the end or was it just a generic quick look in your throat like what a GP would do? Quite worried about needing the camera up my nose :(

By the sounds of the tests you had, I've had some already done by my GP and found them to be not too bad, such as the quick movements with my head in certain angles to check for eye movements. My eyes didn't move during it but the GP said the ENT will check for it further with their other tests like an ENG.

Thanks again!