Bell’s Palsy is a devastating health condition, and it affects people out of nowhere. There is often very little warning, there is no cure, and there is no way to know if your symptoms will go away, if they will stick around, or if they will ever come back. The good news about Bell’s Palsy is it doesn’t stick around forever for most people. It typically goes away on its own within a few weeks, but it can last a long as six months before full recovery is achieved. Bell’s palsy is a health issue in which the muscle on one side of your face droops. It’s sudden, it’s not painful, and it’s devastating to those who develop this problem.
Bell’s Palsy doesn’t provide any warnings. You might go about your day as you usually do only to wake up the following morning with one side of your face drooping. You might not feel your face as it can cause mild to severe paralysis. What makes Bell’s palsy different than other health problem is despite there not being a cure for this problem, it goes away on its own. Most people never experience symptoms of this problem again in life, but sometimes it does reoccur in people who’ve suffered before.
1. Ear Pain
Pain in the ear is not uncommon, and it can happen to virtually anyone at any point. Ear pain isn’t always related to problems with the ear, either. Sometimes a toothache or other pain it the mouth can make you feel as if your ear is hurting, and it falsely leads you to believe you might have an ear infection or some other problem. Ear pain with this condition, however, might appear a bit different. Rather than a shooting pain as it happens with an earache or a toothache, this kind of ear pain is more isolated. It might happen behind the ear on the side of the face where the paralysis occurs.
If you notice your face is drooping and your ear is hurting, you must call the doctor immediately. This is the best way to diagnose your issue and get you started on a path to recovery. Your face might not feel entirely paralyzed, either. Some people experience very mild paralysis, and they don’t realize their problem is Bell’s Palsy until they’ve been suffering for a while. There’s not a cure, but a doctor can help you diagnose the issue, handle the pain in a way that makes it more bearable, and they can rule out issues such as stroke and other health problems.
2. Abnormality of Taste
When a woman is pregnant, she might notice some of the foods she loved in the past no longer appeal to her. They don’t taste the same, and they aren’t something she wants to eat anymore. This same sensation can happen when Bell’s Palsy is present. It might happen only on the affected side of your face, but it all means the same thing. Your sense of taste is no longer where it was, and it no longer allows you to taste your favorite or least favorite foods in the same manner you did before. This symptom will go away as Bell’s palsy symptoms subside, but it will also have an impact on your diet during the course of your symptoms.
3. Sensitivity to Sound
Ear pain is one of the most common signs of Bell’s Palsy, and it’s one that affects almost all people who suffer. Along with pain in the ear comes a sensitivity to sound likely due to the fact you cannot hear well out of one ear because of the paralysis and the pain. The sensitivity might not affect you the same way it affects someone else suffering from this problem. You might be sensitive to loud sounds, to very low sounds, or to anything that involves a very specific sound. This will become one of the symptoms that bothers you the most because you cannot turn off your hearing and make this stop, but it will subside.
4. Facial Muscle Weakness
Bell’s Palsy affects the muscles in the face, and it’s one of the most common signs of Bell’s Palsy. It is the most prominent and most obvious symptom of this health problem, and it’s the one you might notice first. Your muscles in one side of your face no longer work as well. They might not work at all, and they might not work for several weeks or months. The weakness you feel might be very minimal or it might appear as total paralysis. It’s not a problem you’ll live with forever, but the muscles in your face will feel very weak even as they begin to have feeling again as the symptoms wear off.
5. Drooling
Drooling is not painful. It doesn’t hurt or have any effect on your recovery, but it might be the worst symptom for some people simply because it’s embarrassing to drool. You cannot control the drool, and you might not even notice you’re doing it right away. The side of your face you cannot feel drools regularly, and it’s something that bothers people suffering from Bell’s Palsy more than anything because it is uncontrollable. When you cannot feel your face to stop yourself from drooling, it’s embarrassing. It happens, and there is very little you can do about it other than wait for symptoms to subside.
6. Dry Eyes
Facial paralysis on one side of your face essentially means you cannot control any of the muscles on that side of the face. Your affected eye might end up very dry due to being unable to blink. Your eyes might water, and you might not notice it on the affected side of your face because you cannot feel that side. You might look as if you’re crying regularly, and it might be a problem for you. Both eyes might become very dry, and you might find your doctor recommends you use moisturizing eye drops regularly to help combat the dryness and keep your eyes in good health.
7. Facial Droop
Bell’s Palsy might affect you significantly with total paralysis for weeks or months on one side of your face, or it might affect you minimally with minor paralysis. Either way, you’re no longer able to control the muscles on one side of your face, and your face will droop due to lack of muscle control. Facial droop is most obvious around the eyes and the mouth where your muscles aren’t working, and you cannot control your face. When you smile with the other side of your face, the affected side will not move. Muscles become weak from being unable to move, and it might take some time to help strengthen your muscles.
8. Face Muscle Twitches
As your face muscles become weak from lack of use, you might notice they twitch. This is not a bad sign, and it’s not something you should worry too much about. It’s a reaction you cannot control. It might happen as your muscles continue to go unused, and it might happen as your muscles begin to regain a little strength and the paralysis eases up a bit. Most people who suffer from Bell’s Palsy don’t suffer long. The typical recovery period is rarely longer than six months, though most people recover fully inside of three months. Only a handful of people never recover from this health problem.
