FAQ

Bells Palsy is an equal opportunity condition and will affect one in 60 UK citizens at some point during their lifetime. It can affect anyone at all, but for those with diabetes, weak immune systems and pregnant women there is a greater chance of contracting BP.

During recovery children tend to recover faster and better than adults. The healthier you are generally, the better your chance of a successful, fast recovery.

Bells Palsy is self healing, so the patient can recover with no medication at all other than eye care treatments. However most doctors will prescribe steroids and possibly a course of antivirals as well in an attempt to improve and speed recovery.

The medications should be started as soon as possible, certainly within the first 7 days to be of benefit. Preservative free eye drops or lubricants are very important and should be used liberally to protect the cornea.

The symptoms appear very suddenly over a period of a few hours. Paralysis is usually complete within 24 hours, although the symptoms can worsen for a few days, but no longer than 2 weeks.
Typically it begins with some earache and pain behind the ear. A tingling sensation on one side of the face and eye discomfort.

At its peak typical symptoms are:

Weakness or full paralysis of one side of the face, including the forehead.
Inability to close the eye (or a definite weakness to the blink in milder cases), resulting in tearing.
Lack of tears.
Sensitivity to light.
Slurred speech.
Inability to whistle.
Some facial swelling.
Diminished taste sensation (a metallic or salty taste is often reported).
Sounds may appear sharper on the affected side (hyperacusis).
Some facial numbness may be reported due to interactions from the 5th cranial nerve.
The corner of the mouth may droop. This can cause some minor drooling and difficulty with drinking.
Runny or blocked nose.
Excess or lack of saliva.
Ear pain (often behind the ear).
A bruised to the touch feeling in particular spots on the face.

Bells Palsy is an idiopathic condition. It has no certain cause, but the HSV1 (cold sore virus) is thought to be the culprit in most cases. You do not have to have had a cold sore to have the virus in your body. There are many possible causes for Facial Palsy, so Bells Palsy should not be diagnosed until all other possible reasons for the paralysis have been investigated.

No BP is not contagious, and Bells Palsy is not believed to be a hereditary condition, but about ten percent of patients report other cases within their families. There is a train of thought that the canal the facial nerve runs through may be narrower in some people than others and it could be a hereditary trait which allows more occurances of BP to happen within those families.

Bells Palsy affects the 7th Cranial nerve only. It only causes paralysis to the face. The only other aches, pains and tingles related to it may be around the ear, the back of the head, front of the neck and occasionally the shoulder due to the lack of support from the platysma muscle in the neck.

If you have any other concerns about different areas of your body you must seek advice from your doctor.

After we have Bells Palsy it is very normal for some of us to get regressive symptoms occasionally. When we are going through a period of stress, lacking sleep, have been unwell or have generally been overdoing things, our faces can react badly.

This doesn’t mean we are getting BP again, it simply means that we need to cut the stress, get some rest and take life a little slower for a few days. Our faces become our early warning system (stressometer) and we should listen to them. A few days of taking care of ourselves and things are usually back to normal, but if not and you develop paralysis you should see your doctor immediately.

The side on which you get BP is random, there is a facial nerve on each side and its like tossing a coin every time. However if a person gets it repeatedly and consistantly on one side there could be an underlying cause which should be investigated.

There is no cure for BP, it heals itself and takes its own time to do so. Everyone heals at a different rate. The best things you can do for yourself are get as much rest as possible, take good care of your eye with lots of preservative free artificial tears during the day and a thicker eye gel at night, eat well and try to reduce the stress in your life as much as you can.

Some doctors and therapists do recommend treatments, but depending on the therapy some are known to do more harm than good. Any treatment that you undertake should be thoroughly researched before you go ahead with it. Its good to feel proactive, but in this case rest and relaxation are the best things for healing.

At the beginning it is not necessary to start facial exercises. The facial muscles do not begin to atrophy for approximately two years and are fine doing nothing at all for a while. Forced facial movements can cause problems with recovery later on. Here is a link to some approved facial exercises which may be done once significant movement has returned.