Bells Palsy Symptoms – Reader Comments

Bells Palsy is a condition that affects facial muscles, causing weakness or paralysis, the actual cause of which is still unknown. However, evidence suggests that the most common virus associated with Bells Palsy seems to be what is called Herpes Simplex—the virus that also causes genital herpes or cold sores.  Other viruses linked to the cause of this condition are Herpes Zoster, which causes chickenpox, and Epstein-Barr, another virus in the same family.

With Bells Palsy, the nerve that controls most muscles in the face becomes irritated.  This nerve, which passes through bone, becomes swollen. The bone therefore pinches the nerve, and this causes problems with the control of facial muscles, such as, for instance, those needed for smiling and blinking, as well as with the control of the tear and salivary glands.

One of Bells Palsy symptoms and signs is paralysis on just one side of the face, excluding, of course, facial weakness caused by other conditions such as an infection or a stroke.  If the paralysis occurs only on one side of the face, this is more likely caused by Bells Palsy than by anything else.  One will also probably experience pain in the ear on the side of the face that is affected, thereby causing sounds and noises to be heard louder on that side.  Other Bell Palsy symptoms include headache, loss of the sense of taste, difficulty in smiling, closing your eye and other facial expressions.  The quantity of tears and saliva produced by the body also changes, causing drooling or excessive tearing.

Statistics reveal that Bells Palsy can affect anyone and can happen at any age. However, it is uncommon for it to strike anyone older than sixty or younger than fifteen. It usually lasts not longer than six months, and for some people, improvement starts to show within a few weeks after its onset.

Bells palsy is not choosy when it comes to its victims.  However, the most common victims usually are diabetics, people with influenza and upper respiratory ailments.  It is also commonly strikes among pregnant women.  The condition can be described as a sudden weakness and paralysis of facial muscles that occurs suddenly but lasts up to five days.  One-sided facial pain and discomfort also accompanies this attack.  As to the cause of it, doctors have determined that damage to the 7th cranial nerve is the culprit.

Despite the conditions mentioned, Bells palsy is not permanent.  However, there are cases when Bells palsy does not go away.  There is no real treatment for this condition.  As far as recovery is concerned, it does happen.  Recovery may set in about two weeks to six months from the onset of the conditions of Bells palsy.  When recovery does happen, there are cases that affected facial muscles regain full strength and may return to normal expression.

So how does one recognize the signs and symptoms of Bells palsy?  The symptoms of Bells palsy are varied and may include the following:  drooling, headache, loss of sensation or feeling in the face, loss of the sense of taste in about two-thirds of the front of the tongue, hypersensitivity of the affected ear, non-closure or inability to shut the eye on the part affected by Bells palsy, loss of control of facial expressions due to poor facial muscle strength.  So when one experiences the symptoms of Bells palsy, consult with a doctor immediately.

So, what are the Bells palsy causes? Doctors are uncertain.  However, the disorder may be associated with the following:  high blood pressure, diabetes, trauma, toxins, Lyme disease, sarcoidosis, myasthenia gravis, infection and diabetes.

As far as treatment is concerned, it is best that one should consult with a doctor before attempting any form of healing from the condition.  Doctors may prescribe ways to relieve eye discomfort, prescribe drugs to help combat inflammation or to alleviate pain that the patient is experiencing.  Some doctors may also advise therapy to stimulate the affected facial nerve.

Bells palsy is a condition in which one side of the patient’s face is paralyzed. This condition is most often temporary.  Bell palsy symptoms usually come without any waning and no obvious cause.

Bell palsy symptoms are commonly confused with symptoms of a stroke. This is mainly because bell palsy symptoms are primarily seen in the faces of patients. Stroke patients usually experience trouble with speaking and paralysis or numbness on one side of the body, among other symptoms, while in Bells palsy, the patient’s head is the main body part that is affected by the disease.

Patients with Bells palsy usually experience stiffness of the face. Also, half of the patient’s face appears to droop. Patient’s eye on the affected side drips tears and won’t close, and only half of the face can be moved.

Bells palsy or facial weakness/paralysis occurs when the nerve that controls the patient’s facial muscle, which passes through a narrow corridor of bone, becomes inflamed or swollen. When the nerve becomes swollen, it gets pinched in the corridor where it is located, and this interferes with the communication between the nerve and the facial muscle.

When a patient has Bells palsy, he or she may experience or feel pain behind of or in front of the ear on the affected side. Patient may also experience headache, loss of taste which would lead to loss of appetite, and changes in the amount of tears and saliva that the body produces. In some cases, some patients remark that sounds seem abnormally and uncomfortably louder than usual a few days before the development of palsy.

In the USA alone, around 40,000 Americans develop Bells palsy each year. The disease may occur at any age, but it usually does not affect people younger than 15 or older than 60.

Most patients start to recover from Bells palsy within two weeks and complete recovery may come within two or three months. In some cases, however, Bells palsy take longer to cure, and some have permanent symptoms of the condition.

Bell’s palsy is a disorder of the muscles. It occurs when the muscles of a person’s face becomes weak or paralyzed. It starts on one side of the face and can develop into a full paralysis of the face. The condition is named after Sir Charles Bell, a doctor from the nineteenth-century who is credited as the first one to describe the problem and discover its link to the facial nerve.

Symptoms for Bell’s palsy are fairly common and about one in 5,000 people develop the condition. All age groups may be affected, and men and women alike have been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy. It is most common, however, for people between the ages of 15 to 45.

The symptoms for Bell’s palsy may come quite quickly. These could come as fast as in a span of a few hours or may develop overnight. The main symptom, as previously mentioned, is that one side of the face becomes very weak and then paralyzed. A person’s eyebrow may sag and then he may encounter difficulty in closing his eyes.

For some, they may experience a mild earache or feel pain behind the ear as the first symptom of the disorder. Other symptoms for Bell’s palsy are the following:

• Sagging of the mouth
• Excessive dribbling of saliva
• Speech difficulty
• No sense of taste at the front of the tongue or altered sense of taste
• Watering and drying of eyes on the affected side
• Drooping of eyelids
• Sharp hearing on the affected side

There may be other reasons for experiencing these symptoms, but if one is affected by any of these, it is recommended that he visit his General Practitioner for advice.

Most people recover from Bell’s palsy completely, with three out of four people seeing a major improvement in their condition within three to eight weeks of the disorder’s onset. There are some, however, who take longer to heal, with about a three to six month recovery period. About one in six people will have permanent facial weakness, facial twitches, and/or muscle tightness.

Bells palsy is often mistaken as cerebral stroke because there is partial or full facial paralysis or weakening of the facial nerves that cause the affected side of the face to droop. This can stretch from just a few weeks to a good number of years. It is quite easy for people with Bells Palsy to, at first, believe that they have just had a stroke because aside from the drooping and its one-sided nature, Bells Palsy early symptoms may include pain on the face, impaired taste buds, difficulty to close the eyes on the affected side, hypersensitivity to sound, and the most common cerebral stroke symptom, the slurred speech.

The pinpoint cause of Bells Palsy is still not known. One theory is that inflammation-causing viral infections are pressing against the facial nerves, forcing the face to droop. Some, on the other hand, believe that certain conditions like the herpes simplex, diabetes, Lyme disease and some cancers act as catalysts of Bells Palsy early symptoms.

Approximately 25 out of every 100,000 people are affected by Bells Palsy every year, with the incidence rate growing a little bit with age.  Although it can develop in both sexes at any age, it is most common between 15 and 40. Diabetics, pregnant women and those who are immuno-compromised are most likely to develop Bells Palsy.

Three-fourths of Bells Palsy patients experience complete and immediate recovery, most often in only two or three weeks. Others experience a slightly slower recovery and may also exhibit facial asymmetry once in a while. It is interesting to note that in most Bells Palsy patients, synkinesis develops, or the twitching of the corner mouth whenever that person blinks.

At first glance, this medical condition may sound a bit too complicated, but it is highly treatable, given all of Bells Palsy early symptoms.