Vertigo Maneuvres

BPPV is a common reason for dizziness. It can make you feel like you’re spinning, nauseated, and off-balance. This dizziness is most often triggered by changes in your head position, including lying down, rolling over in bed, bending over, or looking up.

BPPV is usually caused by tiny calcium crystals, also called otolith crystals. They get loose in the canals of your inner ear. In your case, the crystals are in your right ear canal in the back, also known as the right posterior canal.

To treat BPPV, you’ll do specific head movements to clear the crystals out of the canal. One of these movements is called the Epley maneuver. The movements may make you feel worse while you’re doing them. Don’t worry! Feeling worse doing the movement is a good sign – it means the crystals are moving. The movements work very well to put the crystals back in place when you do them correctly.

After you do the Epley maneuver, you should no longer feel intense dizziness or spinning with certain head movements or body positions. You may still feel mild dizziness, nausea, or imbalance for a few hours to days.

Once your dizziness has improved, it’s OK to go back to your normal activities. If your dizziness doesn’t completely go away or comes back later, you may need to do the Epley maneuver a few more times. Try doing it once every morning until it no longer makes you feel dizzy. Work with a specially trained professional, called a vestibular physical therapist, to try some other maneuvers if these home exercises are not helping enough.