Bell's Palsy Recovery Series: Causes, Symptoms & Recovery

This may be where you are right now, but it isn’t where your story ends.

Yesterday your tongue felt weird in your mouth, your eye kept watering and your face felt tingly.  Today you woke up and half of your face was drooping and you weren’t able to move it.  Your first thought is immediately that you are having a stroke.  You go to the hospital and they run a lot of tests.  You are scared and uncertain.  Why is this happening?  The doctor comes back with your test results and thankfully you aren’t having a stroke.  But they tell you that you have something called Bell’s Palsy.

Bell’s Palsy can be frightening, one day your face moves normally, and the next, part of it feels frozen.  When suffering from Bell’s Palsy, muscles on one side of your face suddenly become weak or paralyzed.  It usually happens as a result from the facial nerves getting inflamed or irritated, often after some type of viral infection.  This year, we’ve been seeing a lot of tick related facial paralysis.

It is usually considered a temporary condition, with 85% of people recovering within 3 months.  However, we see a lot of people here at South Shore Acupuncture and Wellness that have been suffering from Bell’s Palsy for many years.  We even see people that, although considered as “recovered,” they are still left with some lingering weakness or asymmetry that is exacerbated by occasional flair ups. At our clinic, we use acupuncture, ATP Resonance BioTherapy®, and 03 Therapy to help accelerate nerve recovery and restore function naturally.

This post kicks off our Bell’s Palsy Recovery Series. Over the coming weeks, we’ll explore the physical, emotional, and practical sides of recovery — and the holistic therapies that can help along the way. Next, we’ll start with the foundation: supporting faster nerve healing.

Next Post: Supporting Faster Nerve Regeneration