Impact of Physical Therapy on a Patient with Bell’s Palsy: A Case Report

Abstract

Affecting the seventh cranial nerve, known as Bell's palsy and its neuropathy.  It is a disfiguring disorder with significant impact on patient’s physical mental and social health. It is normally caused by inflammation caused by traumatic, infectious, inflammatory or compressive conditions, and cranial nerve edema may lead to compression and eventual ischemia. In comparison with the central cause peripheral cause leads to more serious form of Bell’s palsy. The symptoms usually include reduced production of tears, altered taste, facial pain, otalgia and aural pressure. the recovery is usually complete while in some cases incomplete recovery is seen. For treating Bell’s palsy a multidisciplinary approach is required to completely return back to normal. A case of female patient whose age 43 year old came to the right hemifacial palsy department has been identified. There was a affected movement of right side eyebrows and affected right forehead movement during clinical evaluation, spontaneously opening and closing of the right eye, difficulty to close the right eye. No conclusive etiology could be traced out after a series of investigations, hence diagnosed as right side Bell’s palsy. We address the clinical characteristics and modalities of care for Bell’s palsy in this article. Education, facial muscle strengthening exercise, eye defense exercises, modalities and acupuncture were included in the physiotherapy intervention.