Cannot Smile Disease

:p

I simply named it cannot smile disease...because one major issues I need to bear with these disease is  the difficulty to smile and laugh :(

Mom told me to do some internet search about Bell's palsy... I have done my homework; here it goes:

Description:

• facial nerve paralysis which causes an inability to control facial muscles on the side affected by this disease. 
• usually temporary.
• Several conditions can cause paralysis of the face: brain cancer, meningitis,stroke, diabetes mellitus, head trauma and Lyme disease. But if no cause can be identified, this condition known as Bell's palsy.
• It is thought that an inflammatory condition leads to swelling of the facial nerve. The nerve travels through the skull in a narrow bone canal beneath the ear. Nerve swelling and compression in the narrow bone canal are thought to lead to nerve inhibition, damage or death. No readily identifiable cause for Bell's palsy has been found.

Cause:

• form of disease associated with nerve damage. It can be found in 2 of 10,000 people. 
• Involves damage to the 7th facial nerve. 
• main reason is still unclear though may be due to herpes infection.
• Studies suggest that this new activation could be preceded by trauma, environmental factors, and metabolic or emotional disorders, thus suggesting that stress - emotional stress, environmental stress (e.g. cold), physical stress (e.g. trauma) - in short, a host of different conditions, may trigger reactivation.

Symptoms:

• Changes in face expression
• Difficulty to eat and drink
• Weak eyelid or corner of the mouth
• Dry eyes or mouth
• A sense of tension in your face or feel drawn to one side
• Facial paralysis on one side which makes it difficult to close one eye
• Headache
• Loss of sensation
• Pain behind or in front of the ear
• Sensitivity to sounds in the affected areas suffer from
• Weak feeling in the face  
• Often the eye in the affected side cannot be closed. The eye must be protected from drying up, or the cornea may be permanently damaged resulting in impaired vision.

Treatment:

• In many cases, no treatment is required. The aim of treatment is to reduce symptoms. 
• Corticosteroid or antiviral medications may reduce swelling and reduce pressure on the facial nerve. Patients must take this drug at the beginning of time (preferably within 24 hours of when symptoms start) for the better. But there are no published studies that show antiviral drugs can speed the process of recovery from Bell's palsy. 
• Surgery to relieve pressure on the nerve is still controversial and has not been shown to benefit patients with Bell's Palsy. 

Information source:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%27s_palsy

~xoxo~