Facial nerve neuritis, the treatment of which shouldto begin as quickly as possible, brings a lot of trouble to the sick person. Firstly, the sensations during this disease are not the most pleasant. And secondly, such cases of facial nerve disease look extremely unaesthetic - after all, the face of the sick person is very distorted. Unfortunately, often people do not perceive facial nerve neuritis as any serious disease, and they either do not go to the doctor at all, or go to the doctor, but only when the disease progresses and is already in an advanced state. And the more advanced the state of the disease, the less effective the treatment. In very severe cases, it will not be possible to completely get rid of the disease. In order to understand what kind of disease this is - facial nerve neuritis, you need to have an idea of the facial nerve. It begins in the membranes of the brain, from where it branches through the temporal bone - one branch goes to the ear, forming the posterior auricular nerve, the second stretches through the parotid gland, and comes out in the front part of the external auditory opening, in the form of multiple nerve plexuses. On the face itself, there are also several main large branches of the facial nerve, located on the cheeks, cheekbones, lower jaw and temples. The facial nerve mainly consists of motor fibers, but the intermediate nerve, which includes secretory, taste, motor and sensory fibers, is adjacent to the facial nerve. It is the facial nerve that provides all facial movements - blinking, mimic, sneezing and others.
Types of lesions of the facial nerve
Despite the fact that all types of damage to this group of nerves have the same name - facial nerve neuritis, doctors distinguish two types of damage - primary and secondary.
Symptoms of the disease
Of course, like any other disease,Facial nerve neuritis has its own symptoms. And the main one is facial asymmetry. It is observed even at the initial stage of the disease, when the damage to the facial nerve is still quite insignificant. In the same case, if there is a complete damage to the facial nerve, the picture of paralysis is observed in a pronounced form: the face becomes mask-like, without any expression, the eyes are wide open, the eyebrows are lowered, there are no frontal or nasolabial folds. The sick person is unable to close his eyes tightly, smile or frown, sometimes even just blink. Particularly unpleasant is the fact that it is impossible to close the eyes completely - the eyeball itself rises upward during this attempt, the sclera does not completely cover. As a result, a person is forced to sleep with half-open eyes, which significantly worsens the quality of sleep. When trying to smile, half of the face remains absolutely motionless, and the line of the mouth deviates towards the healthy half. Eating food is no less difficult for a sick person - it gets stuck between the gums and teeth, and saliva and liquid food are very poorly retained in the mouth. A sick person cannot swallow food or spit out saliva - all this flows out of the mouth spontaneously. During an exacerbation, a person may stick out his tongue, speech is impaired - sometimes very significantly. And by the way. Impaired pronunciation of some sounds - for example, b. m - occurs even with an insignificant degree of damage to the facial nerve. In some cases, neuritis of the facial nerve can be preceded by some other symptoms. Most often, a sick person can experience pain in the ear, not particularly long and intense, but constant, almost never stopping. And taking painkillers in this case is almost ineffective. In addition, during this period, a sick person perceives any sounds very painfully, even the most ordinary and quiet ones. Soon after the appearance of pain in the ears, a person may lose the sense of taste either on the entire surface of the tongue or only on one half. Incidentally, it is quite rare, but sometimes the pain in the ears can be extremely intense, and even accompanied by herpetic eruptions - small bubbles merging into one wound. As the disease progresses, symptoms appear indicating that the nerve fibers that provide normal secretory function have been damaged - the production of tear fluid stops - the eyes of a sick person are dry, sweating - the skin is also extremely dry.
Diagnosis of this disease
Diagnosis of facial nerve neuritisToday, it is not difficult for doctors - neurologists. As a rule, an external visual examination is enough for a doctor to determine the disease. However, sometimes, to clarify the severity of the lesion, the doctor may prescribe a special study, the purpose of which is to determine the electrical excitability of the nerve. This is necessary to determine whether the nerve has completely degenerated, or only partially. The type of treatment depends very much on this. And, in addition, if the neuritis of the facial nerve is secondary, additional studies may be required to help determine the underlying disease that led to the neuritis. Perhaps you will have to seek help from narrow specialists - a dentist, an ENT doctor.
Treatment of neuritis
As mentioned above, independentTreatment of such a disease as facial nerve neuritis is unacceptable. The only correct thing in this situation is to seek help from a neurologist, who will select the right course of treatment for you. Treatment of neuritis should be strictly comprehensive - medication and physiotherapy. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to improve the patient's condition - you can only slow down the progression of the disease a little. During the acute stage of the disease, the patient should receive pharmacological drugs that should relieve tissue swelling and inflammation. As a rule, anti-inflammatory non-hormonal drugs and agents that dilate blood vessels are used for this. Very rarely, if the swelling needs to be relieved as quickly as possible, the doctor may prescribe hormonal drugs, such as prednisolone. As a rule, after about ten days, drugs are added, as a result of which the regeneration of nerve tissue is stimulated, the immune system and the functioning of nerve tissue are improved. In addition, the treatment of facial nerve neuritis includes physiotherapy. As a rule, UHF or sollux, which have a vasodilating and anti-inflammatory effect, are prescribed from the very first day. And approximately two weeks after the disease, ultrasound treatment and electrophoresis are prescribed. If the doctor deems it necessary, he can prescribe a massage. If the sick person seeks help in a timely manner, the treatment of neuritis will take no more than three to four weeks. We recommend reading:
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