Bell’s Palsy is an abnormality caused by the seventh cranial nerve that is responsible for controlling the muscles responsible for facial expressions. As a result, it causes the patient to experience weakness in their facial muscles, inability to fully close their eyes, eye irritation and inability to raise their brow. This disorder is treatable if the patient quickly seeks medical attention before it progresses.
Bell’s Palsy is a serious sign that can happen to anyone.
Bell’s Palsy can occur to people of any age and sex. Statistics show that it occurs more commonly in women than men at younger age. After 40 years of age, however, it is more common in men. It is also three times more common in pregnant women than other demographics and 4-5 times more common in diabetes patients and patients with immunodeficiencies.
If you have any of these abnormal symptoms, you need to quickly seek medical attention!
Patients usually show symptoms fairly quickly. Some patients experience their symptoms acutely. For example, they might wake up and find that half of their face has grown weak and heavy, and when they rinse their mouth, water or saliva will drip from the corner of that side of the mouth. They will also be unable to fully close their eyes in addition to experiencing eye irritation and an inability to raise their brow. Some patients experience pain behind the ears and might hear echoing on the affected side. Furthermore, their sense of taste can be abnormal in the affected side, and the severity of symptoms depend on each case. In most cases, symptoms worsen within the first 1-2 hours to the first 1-3 days, but some cases continue to experience worsening symptoms for up to 14 days.
What causes Bell’s Palsy?
Although a clear cause is unknown in most cases, it is believed to be inflammation involving the seventh cranial nerve that occurs after a viral infection. However, in some patients, it is caused by herpes infection in the ganglion; in these cases, patients might experience pain and clear boils developing around the opening of the outer ear first.
Furthermore, Bell’s palsy can also cause brain tumor or cranial cavity enlargement which compresses on the seventh cranial nerve and this require patient’s diagnosis.
Because it can be more dangerous than you think, diagnosis is vital!
When you experience the above symptoms, you should seek medical attention in order to have your history reviewed and undergo a thorough physical examination of your nervous system in order to allow doctors to render a diagnosis in addition to differentiating Bell’s palsy patients from ischemic stroke patients, which can also experience palsy symptoms. They also experience weakness in the legs while still being able to raise their brow on the affected side.
Doctors might recommend additional tests like nerve conduction test, lumbar puncture and brain x-ray, which necessary in some cases as deemed is fitting by doctors.
Treatment Guideline
- Steroid medications can reduce nerve inflammation. After taking them continuously for 2 weeks, the dosage can be decreased according to the doctor’s recommendations.
- Eye ointments and eyedrops can be administered before covering the eye fully with a cloth while sleeping in order to prevent eye tissue inflammation due to reduced blinking.
- Antiviral medications, which are considered in cases thought to be associated with herpes zoster.
- Physical therapy, which can be administered with electrical stimulation. This treatment is pursued in some patients.
The severity of the disease depends on its progression.
- 80% of patients recover well within 4-6 weeks.
- 10% of patients experience palsy on both sides of the face.
- 7% of patients experience recurrent symptoms.
Muscle twitches can occur due to excessive growth after nerve repair in some patients.
Additional Recommendations
– In diabetes patients, it is necessary to maintain normal blood sugar levels, because steroid drugs can cause blood sugar to rise dangerously. Patients should exercise their facial muscles by raising their brows, tightly closing the eyes, smiling and pouting their cheeks.
–Seek medical attention more quickly if there are other neurological symptoms like numbness of the face, reduced hearing ability, weakness or numbness in half of the face, or numbness on hands or feet, slurred speech, double vision, loss of balance, listlessness, confusion or worsening of symptoms on both sides.
