Vertigo & Dizziness

The room shouldn't move when you roll over in bed. Dizziness has many owners — the inner ear, the neck, blood pressure, medications, and things that need a physician first — so the most valuable thing this page can promise is honest triage: we treat what's ours, and we refer what isn't.

What’s actually going on

Two patterns intersect chiropractic care. BPPV — brief spinning triggered by position changes (rolling over, looking up) — is an inner-ear crystal problem with a specific, well-validated repositioning treatment. Cervicogenic dizziness — unsteadiness and lightheadedness accompanying neck pain and stiffness, often after whiplash — reflects the neck's role in balance sensing. Everything else on dizziness's long list gets screened for and referred appropriately.

Common causes we see

• BPPV — displaced inner-ear crystals (the most common vertigo, more so with age)
• Cervicogenic dizziness — neck dysfunction feeding faulty position sense, classically post-whiplash
• Vestibular conditions, migraine-associated vertigo — co-managed medically
• Blood pressure, medications, dehydration — screened, referred
• Serious causes (the minority) — screened first, always

How we evaluate it

Pattern history (spinning vs lightheaded vs unsteady; triggers; duration), positional testing (Dix-Hallpike) for BPPV, cervical examination for the neck-driven pattern, and red-flag screening including the neurological signs that make dizziness a medical case first. This triage IS the visit's value.

How chiropractic care may help

For confirmed BPPV: canalith repositioning (Epley-type maneuvers) — brief, evidence-supported, often effective within a few sessions. For cervicogenic patterns: gentle cervical care, soft-tissue work, and balance retraining, typically improving as the neck does. For everything else: a clear explanation of why it isn't ours and a referral to who it belongs to — an answer that saves patients months.

What to expect

Positional testing may briefly reproduce your vertigo — controlled and expected; that's how it's diagnosed. Arrange a driver for your first visit if episodes are strong.

Treatment reference: canalith repositioning for BPPV per clinical practice guidelines (AAO-HNS).