Meniere's Disease

A diet low in sodium, caffeine, and alcohol may help reduce your Meniere’s symptoms. Quitting smoking may also help.

Balance exercises can help your brain compensate for your damaged balance mechanism. This special form of physical therapy trains your body to make up for inner ear dysfunction, helps you feel steadier on your feet, and reduces the risk of falling.

Your doctor may prescribe medications to address immediate symptoms or prevent future episodes. These may include diuretics (which reduce fluid retention), motion sickness drugs, and anti-nausea medications.

Implantable hearing devices, such as cochlear implants or bone conduction hearing aids, can help restore hearing.

Direct delivery of medications to the inner ear may help reduce symptoms associated with Meniere’s disease. It could take months before you notice results. The doctor will numb your eardrum before injecting the medication, so pain is minimal. Typically, a series of steroid (dexamethasone) injections is the first option. If that fails, ENT specialists may opt for a series of antibiotic (gentamicin) injections. The goal of this medication is to purposefully disable balance nerves that cause vertigo.

Typically reserved for people who already have severe or total hearing loss in the affected ear, this surgery removes the labyrinth (the inner ear balance organ), eliminating the source of dizziness. You’ll likely be able to go home the same day as your surgery, although you may experience dizziness for a few days as your remaining labyrinth compensates to restore balance. Ironically, this takes less time in people who had severe balance loss before surgery. 

This procedure removes the bone located over the endolymphatic sac (a pouch that helps drain fluid from the inner ear), allowing it to function better. Sometimes an opening is made in the sac and a shunt or tube is placed to aid drainage. Altogether, the procedure lasts about an hour and patients typically go home the same day.

Preferred when a person has not had much hearing loss, this procedure requires surgically opening the skull (a craniotomy). Once inside, a surgeon cuts the balance nerve near where it exits the brain, which interrupts the signals that make you feel dizzy. The surgery lasts about two hours. Patients usually spend a few days in the hospital afterward to recover.