Your First Appointment

To help prepare for your appointment for vertigo, dizziness and unsteadiness, making a list with the following information can be helpful.

What type(s) of dizziness/unsteadiness do you experience?

Are you experiencing room spinning sensation or head-spinning sensation? or is it a sensation of light-headedness or off-balance?

What triggers or worsens your dizziness/unsteadiness?

Dizziness can occur spontaneously or due to certain triggers . For example, dizziness can be triggered by head movements and positional changes or busy visual environments such as supermarkets. Knowing these triggers are quite useful to understand the cause of dizziness. Therefore, it will be useful to keep a note of the trigger(s) of your dizziness.

How long does the dizziness last?

Duration of dizziness can vary from seconds to days, in some cases it can even be persistent most days. Similar to the triggers, duration too is quite helpful to understand the underlying cause of dizziness. Please make a note of the duration of your dizziness attacks.

Do you have any other symptoms when you feel dizzy?

While dizziness can occur in isolation, sometimes they occur along with other symptoms. Please make a note if you have symptoms such as headaches, hearing loss and sensitivity to bright light/ loud noises etc. 

Do you have any such associated symptoms?

Additionally, keep a note of any diagnosis you have received and treatments you are currently undergoing or underwent in the past for your dizziness If you are suffering from any other medical conditions such as diabetes high BP and migraine please report these to your specialist.

It's also a good idea to prepare a list of questions you may have about your symptoms to discuss with our specialist.

Have you completed the Dizziness Questionnaire(s)?

If you have not already completed Dizziness Quiz online, you will be completing the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) before the appointment.

Online appointment

We use Zoom, Teams, FaceTime and WhatsApp video platforms for Online consultation. For zoom and Teams you will receive the invite via email, if you are using WhatsApp /FaceTime please let us know your contact number. Please keep your preferred gadget charged to last for the duration of the appointment; the appointment is usually around an hour.

At the appointment

• Your specialist will start the session by listening to you giving background history about your dizziness. When necessary, he may ask leading/ probing questions to understand your dizziness better.

• Your specialist will analyse the questionnaire(s) that you may have completed prior to the appointment and discuss it with you.

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• Following the subjective screening, your specialist will put you through dizziness & balance specific physical examination.

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• For the positional tests, you may have to lie down on your bed. (be close to a bed) For the balance assessment, you may have to stand in a corner with a chair in front for safety. (spot/ prepare a suitable corner).

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• In most cases, at the end of the assessment, your specialist will be able to give you a diagnosis of the underlying cause(s) of your dizziness.

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• Your specialist will explain, in plain language without medical jargon, the condition(s) you are suffering from and the treatment options available and the expected prognosis.

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• Additionally, if you are suitable to undergo the treatment, you will receive the treatment. At the end of the consultation, you will receive patient information about the condition you are diagnosed with and a treatment/exercise sheet via email.

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• It's not unusual to feel your dizziness and unsteadiness worsened following the initial appointment due to the tests and treatments you went through. However, the symptoms will calm down rapidly less than an hour or so after the session.