Support for people with balance problems

To help you keep your balance your brain uses information from three main places: 

  • sensors in your joints and muscles (called proprioceptive information) 

  • your eyes (visual information) 

  • your inner ears (vestibular information) 

If you are finding it difficult to balance, you may have a problem with one of these information sources. In Audiology, our speciality is the vestibular system (the balance organs in your inner ears). 

To see an audiologist for a specialist balance assessment and tinnitus testing, you need to be referred by your Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) consultant. We do not accept direct referrals from your GP – you will have to be seen initially by an ENT doctor before we accept your referral.   

Before your balance assessment 

We’ll send you a pre-appointment questionnaire so you can tell us more about the symptoms you’ve been experiencing. Once you've posted this back to us, a balance specialist will review your questionnaire and decide what type of appointment you need. 

Important 

  • We recommend that you bring a friend or family member to the appointment with you to escort you home. We do not recommend that you drive after a balance assessment as you may be feeling dizzy.  

  • Please don’t wear any eye make-up, including mascara, or fake eyelashes. If you wear permanent fake eyelashes, or if you have long eyelashes, try to curl them up away from the eyes, as we will be tracking your pupils with the goggles on. Too much dark eye make-up will interfere with our tests.  

  • Please avoid having anti-dizziness medication or alcohol 48 hours before your appointment as these may affect the results.   

During your balance assessment 

Your balance assessment will usually start with a chat with the specialist about the symptoms you told us about in your pre-appointment questionnaire. This will be followed by a number of balance tests. 

The tests we do will depend on your symptoms. They will usually involve us putting goggles over your eyes and looking at your eye movements. Your eye movements can tell us a lot about what is going on inside your balance system.  

We may be able to explain the test results to you on the day - if we can’t do that your consultant will go through them with you at your follow-up appointment. 

Audiology