New Center treats Dizziness and Hearing Disorders

[July 2008] Elias Michaelides, MD has established the Hearing and Balance Center, which takes a multidisciplinary approach to treating dizziness and hearing disorders.

Dizziness is a common problem, says Michaelides, but not one that many physicians devote themselves to treating. “Very few doctors really focus on this,” he says of dizziness, an all-encompassing term that includes vertigo, imbalance, lightheadedness and other symptoms. “It is something everybody knows a little bit about, but not always enough to make a comprehensive treatment plan.”

The Center is the first in Connecticut to provide state-of-the-art equipment known as the Dynamic Postural Stability Platform, used for balance retraining for many balance disorders. This is the most comprehensive assessment and retraining for sensory and neuromuscular conditions that may cause imbalance.

Hearing and balance are related because the human balance, or vestibular, system resides in the inner ear. The inner ear’s three balance canals contain fluids that stimulate sensory cells, which signal direction to the brain through the vestibular nerve. “The causes of dizziness range from neurologic to inner ear to orthopaedic.”

The center provides hearing testing, hearing aid fitting and dispensing, and balance testing. It also offers electrophysiological nerve testing to determine whether dizziness is caused by an inner ear infection or neurological problem. Patient services and diagnostic testing are conveniently located in one place. Treatments may be medical, surgical or rehabilitation and include the newest advances in surgical techniques and hearing devices that allow many more patients to reverse the social isolation and frustration that hearing loss can cause. “The majority of our patients don’t need surgery,” Michaelides says.