And other important answers to frequent questions about Bells Palsy
‼️This post is for informational and educational purpose only. It is not tailored medical advice to your specific condition.
Can I Get Bell’s Palsy More Than Once?
- Bell’s Palsy has an incidence of 1 in 60 lifetime chance.
- Some studies have closely looked at the chance of recurrence and concluded that Bell’s Palsy recurs in 4-14% of patients.
- This recurrence can occur on either side of the face, not necessarily the same side.
- A Romanian study carried over 10 years, following a total of 185 patients( 136 adults, 49 children) demonstrated that 12% of these 185 subjects suffered 1 to 6 recurrence of BP.
- That recurrence was more likely to occurs within the first two years after the original episode and more likely in females and if suffering more than two episodes, all subjects develop an episode of BP on the other side.
- Recurrence was expected in more than 1 out of 10 subjects.
- Another conclusion was that one is more likely to develop recurrence if you have a family history of the disease.
- So you have 6% lifetime chance to contract Bell’s palsy, then 4-14% to have recurrence. So not at all common.
What Should I Do In Priority When Diagnosed?
How Should I Be Massaging My Forehead?
- Your occipitofrontalis, the muscles that lifts your eyebrow and creates wrinkle on your forehead as you do so, can be massaged prior to attempt working on lifting your eyebrow.
- This allow for stimulation, increased blood flow and mobilization of possible fibrotic tissue.
- In this picture, I just show the direction the massage should take place.
- Easy thing to do with potential big results in loosening your forehead and also assisting your eyelid to shut down properly.
available here ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5063726/#!po=19.6429), has compared 31 studies following 882 patients with RHS.
It showed that, when treatment with steroids and antivirals started within no more than 5 days after first symptoms, 70.4% of patients recovered complete facial nerve function.
The recovery was based on an increase score on the House-Brackmann Scale from V-VI to I-II ( I being complete recovery)( see out previous post on the HB Scale)
Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (RHS) represents 12% of the case of facial paralysis, with generally a much worse prognosis than Bell’s Palsy.
Over a 100 scientific medical studies have demonstrated that a combination of course of steroids and antivirals seem to be preferable in the medical treatment of Bell’s Palsy
One meta analysis by Da Costa Monsanto, Bittencourt, et al., titled, available
The studies looked at the effect of treating RHS with Steroids with or without Acyclovir ( antiviral). Results of Administrating Acyclovir with either methylprednisolone, prednisone or hydrocortisone were closely looked at.
The rate of complete recovery were as following: with hydrocortisone:76.3%, with prednisolone:61.4%, with prednisone:69.2%, with methylprednisolone:81.3%
The combination of Acyclovir and Methylprednisolone showed the best chance of recovery.
As usual, medications should be discussed with your physician.
The mentalis, depressor anguli oris and depressor labii inferioris are affected by facial paralysis and are often areas of complaint for tightness and soreness.
Also
Often involved with the complication of Synkinesis.
Shown here on the diagram are the direction of pull to massage and stretch that area.
A little work spent on these areas can be really rewarding in alleviating symptoms
