What Causes Vertigo and How Is It Treated?

You’ve probably heard of vertigo. Most people think of conventional vertigo, which is a symptom rather than a condition in its own right. It can last anywhere from a couple of seconds to a few hours or more. Some people who experience chronic vertigo can find that they suffer repeated episodes for months or even years.

Conventional vertigo is most commonly caused by inner ear problems, which affect balance and cause the dizziness and nausea that characterize vertigo. These inner ear problems include the inner ear infection called labyrinthitis, vestibular neuronitis, and tinnitus. However, there is another very common type of vertigo that isn’t caused by inner ear problems and is often overlooked. It is known as visual vertigo.

 

What is Visual Vertigo and What Causes It?

Visual vertigo differs slightly from conventional vertigo. Instead of being associated with inner ear problems, it is closely associated with a condition called Binocular Vision Dysfunction, or BVD for short.

Visual vertigo occurs when there is too much visual stimulation for your brain to cope. While this can happen at any time, it is most often experienced by people with BVD. BVD is characterized by the minor misalignment of the eyes. For people without the condition, the eyes are in alignment and working in perfect synchronization to create a single, clear image with minimal effort. However, for people with BVD, the eyes are ever so slightly misaligned – not so much that you can see the misalignment, but enough to cause significant symptoms.

As the eyes try to align two separate images into a single plane, the muscles around them have to work much harder than usual. This causes strain both on the muscles and on the trigeminal nerve that communicates messages to the brain. This communication process is hard enough when images are remaining still or when only one thing is being focused on. However, when there are too many visual stimuli, the effects felt are much greater.

Take, for example, traveling by car. Whether you are a passenger or the driver, you will be surrounded by visual stimuli. The faster you drive, the quicker these will pass you by, and the more rapidly your eyes and brain must work together to try and make sense of them. However, if you have the misalignment that characterizes BVD, your visual system will almost certainly become overloaded, leading to the symptoms of visual vertigo.
 

Symptoms of Visual Vertigo

Some of the signs of visual vertigo include:

• Dizziness (especially when driving or in larger stores)

• A sensation of swaying or moving when you aren’t

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Headaches/migraine
   

While these are signs of visual vertigo, they, along with many other symptoms are also indicators of BVD.
 

How is Visual Vertigo Treated?

Fortunately, you don’t have to live with the effects of visual vertigo. If your vertigo is believed to be caused by binocular vision dysfunction, we offer treatment options that can assist with bringing the images from each eye into the same plane and reducing pressure on the trigeminal nerve.

Every patient is different and so too is their treatment. 

 

If you would like to find out more about vertigo and how it can be treated, please take our Take 5 Minute Self Test or contact our team at The Dizziness and Headache Optometry Center in Santa Barbara, California today.
 

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