Overview

What Are Facial Nerve Disorders?

The facial nerve is a nerve that controls the muscles on the side of your face, allowing you to show expression, smile, cry and wink. When you injure the facial nerve, you may experience facial muscle paralysis, weakness or twitching of your face. Symptoms of a facial nerve problem can vary in severity depending upon the extent of your injury.

Diagnoses

If you have facial tics, twitching, numbness, weakness, pain or paralysis, contact your physician for a thorough exam. All of these symptoms can be caused by benign disorders or they can be signs of something more serious. Your physician may use the following tests to determine the cause of your symptoms and to develop an appropriate treatment plan:

• Physical exam
• Neurological exam to check vision, hearing, coordination, balance and reflexes
• Blood tests, including tests for blood sugar and Lyme disease
• Computed tomography (CT) scan
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Positron emission tomography (PET) scans
• Electromyography, a recording of the electrical activity of muscle tissue

Treatments

If you are coping with the pain and discomfort of a facial nerve disorder, you will find comfort in knowing that the board-certified surgeons at Northwestern Medicine can graft, reconstruct or repair facial nerves to treat a number of facial nerve disorders, including Bell palsy, paralysis, spasm or neuralgia.

Treatment for facial nerve disorders varies greatly from patient to patient and from one condition to another. Northwestern Medicine has a wide range of treatment technology, including surgical and nonsurgical solutions, to help you find relief, including:

• Medication
• Botulinum toxin (Botox®) injections
• Supportive therapies
• Surgery, including:
  
  • Microvascular decompression
  • Gamma Knife® radiosurgery

The Functional Neurosurgery Program specialists at Northwestern Memorial Hospital work in integrated teams to provide patients with a multidisciplinary approach to their care. The Northwestern Medicine Peripheral Neuropathy Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital was established in 2009 with support from the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy. We employ a multidisciplinary approach in which specially trained personnel provide diagnostic, treatment, rehabilitative and supportive services. Clinics are held on a weekly basis.