What Are The Symptoms for Bell’s Palsy
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.
