Bell’s palsy is a condition that occurs when the muscles of one side of your face become weakened or paralyzed. Damage to one of the pair of facial nerves that are in your face result in the face having a droopy appearance or in it feeling stiff, but Bell’s palsy usually clears up on its own. However, Bell’s palsy can take weeks or months to go away, leaving the afflicted individual with a self-esteem problem until the condition rectifies itself. Bell’s palsy takes its name from Charles Bell, the Scottish surgeon who first described the condition in the 1820s.
Appearing three times more often in pregnant women than those who are not, four times more frequently in diabetics, and in those with upper respiratory illnesses, Bell’s palsy can happen to someone at any age, although it is rare in children under the age of ten. Some 40,000 to 65,000 cases of Bell’s palsy occur each year in the United States, with 85% of those affected experiencing a full recovery. Bell’s palsy arises when the facial nerve that controls the muscles on one side of the face become inflamed. Science theorizes that a virus, maybe the herpes simplex virus that is also responsible for cold sores, can cause this inflammation. With this nerve swollen, the electrical impulses that give orders to your facial muscles have a hard time getting through, and the consequence is partial paralysis or weakness of the facial muscles. Lyme disease has also been linked to Bell’s palsy as a possible trigger of the symptoms.
These symptoms can include the quick onset of paralysis or weakness on one side of your face. This results in having a hard time smiling or even closing your eye on the side that has been affected. The face can appear to droop, and there are great problems with your facial expressions. Bell’s palsy can make the face feel rigid or stiff, almost as if it is being pulled to one side. There can be pain either in front of or behind the ear on the affected side of your face, and sounds will seem to be louder than usual on that side. There can also be pain in the ear, and a loss of the ability to taste anything on the front of your tongue. Bell’s palsy can even change the volume of tears and saliva that you are able to manufacture. Bell’s palsy can vary in severity from a very mild attack to total paralysis of one side of your face. The symptoms will manifest themselves in the span of a few hours to a couple of days. Only one side of the face is affected in the vast majority of Bell’s palsy cases, which on average take two to three weeks to improve completely.
Facial paralysis can be one of the symptoms of other disorders that are far more serious than Bell’s palsy, and your doctor needs to rule these out if you experience it. A tumor, a form of meningitis, a stroke, head trauma, and a host of other diseases can produce Bell’s palsy symptoms, and your physician will need to exclude these possibilities before treating you. In severe cases of Bell’s palsy, the damage to the facial nerve can be extensive and irreversible. Four to six percent of those who come down with Bell’s palsy have some sort of permanent facial deformity. In some instances, damage to the nerve can cause involuntary contractions of different muscles when you intend to use others; you could close your eye when you smile or have other similar unintentional movements.
Bell’s palsy only reoccurs in about five percent of those who are subjected to it.
Bell’s palsy is such that physicians do not know if their treatments have any effect on the condition one way or another. Your doctor may decide to have you on a prescription corticosteroid like prednisone, which may help to lessen inflammation of the facial nerve, which runs through a very narrow and bony channel beneath each ear. If the swelling can be decreased, the nerve impulses can then run freely along the nerve to the face. If your doctor suspects a virus to be involved, you will be given anti-viral medications to deal with this likelihood. Facial massage can help to alleviate the prospect of paralyzed muscles not recovering totally. When someone develops Bell’s palsy, they will need to protect the eye on the affected side if it can not close because of it. The inability to blink can precipitate the eye becoming dry, and the cornea could develop problems. Artificial tears can be used to keep the eye lubricated sufficiently, or an eye patch can be worn. Bell’s palsy is not a life-threatening condition, but it can certainly be frightening and cause those who have it much embarrassment over their altered facial appearance until it subsides.
