This post is for informational and educational purpose only. It is not tailored medical advice to your specific condition.
What If there was an easier way to get treated for your Bell’s palsy
Let’s face it, many people are reluctant to go in medical offices these days. The Coronavirus pandemic has created an atmosphere where there are risks every time we are surrounded with other people indoor.
Even though it does not offer hands-on treatment like a in-person office visit would, Telehealth consultations and treatments have become more popular.
Telehealth treatments can be very beneficial for treating Bell’s Palsy. Because of the face to face set-up with camera, it allows the practitioner to assess facial expression, movement, asymmetry, muscular activity by following a standardized assessment and using a scale to grade facial muscular activity.
Telehealth allows close and thorough patient education by teaching facial neuromuscular reeducation and motor control using appropriate techniques, tips and cueing versus just following a generic video on YouTube that might not be tailored to your specific needs.
If you are seeing this post you might already have read from various sources that vitamin B12 should always be part of your treatment bag if you suffer with Bell’s Palsy. You might have also read from people linking their recovery solely on taking B12 supplement…
Vitamin B12 is known to be key in maintaining nerve health and function.
Seems logical it would be helpful with BP…
In these studies, they use methylcobalamin or cyanocobalamin as Vitamin B12( the official names for Vit B12)
Some studies have shown that it helps in regeneration of nerve… but these were not done in humans.
Other studies (most limited in terms of subjects and methodology), have shown positive effects and benefits in treatment of Bell’s Palsy
>>No good study was able to demonstrate a definite benefit.
Taking Vitamin B12 as a supplement while recovering from BP might sounds like a good idea and you might think « how bad can that be to take this, they sell it over the counter after all… »
You have seen or heard about practitioners offering Vit B12 injections…
The right approach is to run this by your doctor and ask them the question. Your medical condition/history, your other medications might be a contraindication to take B12 and in that case, that would not be for you… if you are a candidate, discuss in what form should be taking it ( injection, pills…) and of course, how much.
In this video, I go over the optimal order for self treatments at home and which you should do first and an easy way to include self massage during your daily routine.
Diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy? You have googled facial exercises or been given a sheet with pictures showing the facial motion… But still not sure if you are doing them correctly? Surely, there might be something else to it?
In this video, I touch on the topic on the way to perform these exercises: ________.
Addressing each muscles / facial motion with a slow and mild contraction while observing the rest of your face to make sure that one muscles is moving is key. Do this in front of a mirror for feedback.
You do not want to retrain your face squeezing /contracting as hard as you can … to likely see mass contraction ( the whole face contracting)… This could lead to synkinesis.
You might feel a muscle moving but yet not see much motion: That is OK! It is often the case when you start these exercises.
You might need the help from a trained physiotherapist to help show you exactly the correct way.
Two different scales exists to assess and monitor facial musculature function and progress
Today, we are discussing the ________
It was created in Toronto, at the Dunnybtook Health Scienced Centre.
It is composed of three sections:
-Resting symmetry
-Symmetry of voluntary movement
-Synkinesis
Score wise, it scores the range of movement of the facial muscles, as a percentage. The higher the number, the closer to normal function your face is( which would be 100%).
It is designed by to be used with facial paralysis, regardless of its origin(Bell’s Palsy, Ramsay Hunt, etc…)
5 standard facial expressions are tested: eyebrow raise, eye closure, open mouth smile, lip pucker and snarling ( showing teeth)
The Facial Grading System has been shown in studies to have reliability in measuring accurately what it is intended to measure and provides good feedback to patients regarding their progress… as well as helping with motivation.