My new patients often ask me what in the world made me decide to focus my physical therapy practice exclusively on treating patients with dizziness and vertigo.
My answer is that The Bell Method was created by a perfect intersection of my own personal health struggles as a lifelong vestibular patient falling through the cracks of the healthcare system for about 25 years, and my professional career observing how many undiagnosed vestibular patients are suffering like I have with the social, financial and psychological impact of being mismanaged and misguided.
The reality is that any physical therapist entering our profession has a minimum level of competency with treating common problems like back pain or knee pain, or providing rehabilitation after a total hip or knee replacement, to name a few examples. But providing physical therapy expert care to patients suffering with dizziness and vertigo is a specialty skill set within all medical professions, and is not commonly found in an average provider of any type of healthcare service.
I believe physical therapy is uniquely suited to resolve complaints of dizziness and vertigo due to the advances in the practice of vestibular rehabilitation, or inner ear care, since the early 90’s.
So my physical therapy practice has a special mission to rescue mismanaged and misunderstood patients with dizziness and vertigo, and speak out on behalf of those who are still suffering with these problems.
Dr. Meredith Castin, PT, DPT
I had a chance to go in depth with my story of how I arrived at this place in my career during a recent interview with my former student and current colleague Meredith Castin, PT, DPT.Â
During the interview, we discussed the twists and turns of my physical therapy career that led me to create the Bell Method, which has now helped so many people around the world with dizziness, vertigo, imbalance and chronic falls.Â
One blog reader commented on the interview: “Wow, what a great interview! It really highlights the struggle of a vestibular patient and their job choices, as well as the medical community’s continued lack of knowledge about vestibular disorders.”
If you are interested in checking out the full interview on Dr. Castin’s blog, click here.
Disclaimer
This blog is provided for informational purposes only. The content and any comments by Dr. Kim Bell, DPT are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. The details of any case mentioned in this post represent a typical patient that Dr. Bell might see and do not describe the circumstances of a specific individual.
I actually have a question. I have a family member who woke up with numbness on their face, headaches and dizziness. So far the MRI’s have been negative. She was treated by a PT with the Epley and felt some better for a few days then fell and started back to the severe dizziness. They were doing their exercises and felt that something clicked back into place and dizziness was gone for 20 minutes. Then bent over and everything started again. Yesterday the PT did the Semont procedure and then was much better. They even put a soft neck collar to keep head from moving. Was good until this morning and dizziness was back. I am wondering how the dizziness could come and go so much. Any ideas?
Hi Mary,
Negative MRI’s are always a cause for celebration.
The top two possible root causes that come to mind for this type of scenario are recurrent vestibular migraine and refractory BPPV.
Vestibular migraine can cause the initial symptoms of numbness of the face, dizziness, and headache, as well as positional vertigo during an episode.
The BPPV can return after successful treatment, and must be treated to resolution at each recurrence.
When BPPV is frequently recurring, it is called “refractory BPPV.”
Here is an article BPPV prevention.
I suggest discussing those two possible root causes with the doctor or PT who is providing care.
Each root cause deserves its own treatment strategy, in order to reduce or resolve each episode of vertigo.
I hope your family member feels better soon!