Bell’s Palsy symptoms

This is a list of the most common physical symptoms, to which I have added others that I either had, or felt that I had.

This is not an exhaustible list and you may or may not get some or all of them.

What I found was that to just know that a symptom is POSSIBLE and that it has happened to others and is therefore nothing to worry about, was, in itself, extremely helpful.

I also think it is useful for friends and family to be aware of this list so that they can more understand what you are going through and can remind you that your latest “panic” is actually on this list and is therefore something that is “normal”.

Most common symptoms of Bell’s Palsy.

ALL THESE SYMPTOMS AND HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY COPE WITH THEM ARE COVERED LATER IN THE RELEVANT CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK “All Bells and No Whistle” TO GET YOUR COPY DOWNLOADED IMMEDIATELY FOR JUST £9.95 CLICK HERE

Facial muscle weakness or a paralysis of the facial muscles giving an overall droopy appearance on one side of the face.
Wrinkling of the skin disappears (ironically you will be so happy as they start to come back)
An inability to completely close the eye on the side of the paralysis
A constantly watery eye or a constantly dry eye at any one time.
Lower eyelid extremely drooped, allowing more of the eye surface to be exposed to dust, dirt and water.
A particular sensitivity to light probably due to the fact that you cannot close one of your eyes completely.
Crocodile tears. Tears that appear when eating or when you are about to eat. Not problematic, just odd. They are a sign of recovery, but if you don’t get them, you are still recovering.
Teeth pains (unlike toothache more as if the teeth on the affected side of your face have been frozen into one block – with myself this passed within a few days and was odd, rather than truly painful)
Your nose may run more than normal or feel constantly blocked.
Difficulty speaking in the same way as you normally do
Difficulty eating and drinking (you can eat and drink, it is just very different)
A sharp sensitivity to sound in one ear (Hyperacusis)
A feeling of your ear being blocked (maybe with semi-deafness) upon facial movement when facial movement starts to return
Pain in or near the ear
Difficult or impossible to close your lips properly.
A drooping bottom lip (especially in Bilateral Palsy)
A constant thirst or an overactive saliva gland making you dribble
An inability to whistle
Facial swelling or a feeling that your face or parts of it are swollen
Diminished or distorted taste especially in the front 2/3’s of tongue.
Inability to raise the eyebrow on the affected side
A distorted looking face when expressions are made with the good side of the face and when speaking
Slight feelings of being off balance, slightly dizzy, giddy or hyper- vigilant. Can also be due to the stress or fear of the situation, but you do not know that at the time (discussed in detail later)
Chronic tiredness as would be associated with having a virus (this goes incrementally, the more rest that you give yourself)
As things start to improve you may feel either a tingling or slight pain, or experience twitching before that muscle “wakes up” and starts to work again. I must warn you here that sometimes they can wake up and then go back to sleep which is very upsetting (they do awake again though usually)
Believe me, as ridiculous as this sounds, it is one of the most wonderful feelings in this whole experience when you get a new “twitch”!

To summarise all the above, it is very difficult, or even impossible, to show any facial expression, including a smile, on the affected side of your face. It is a similar feeling to leaving a dentist with a “numbed” face. I put “numbed” thus, because your skin does not feel “numb”, but the lack of your control over it makes it feel that it should be.

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