How to treat facial spasms

  The facial spasm mentioned here is facial muscle spasm. Facial spasms have many causes and may be one of the sequelae of facial muscle paralysis or may be a manifestation of localized epilepsy caused by intracranial facial nerve motor nucleus, facial nerve injury, or injury to the motor areas of the cerebral cortex.  Facial muscle spasms occur mainly in adult women and may initially be only a slight throbbing of the upper and lower eyelids. There may also be paroxysmal twitching of other muscles, such as twitching of the corners of the mouth or the corners of the eyes. Twitching is most pronounced in patients in public places such as conversations or presentations that are prone to emotional tension. The episodes are severe during situations such as stress, exertion and anger. The more frequent the tic episodes, the more mental stress there is in life. The following are some of the main treatments: 1. Medications: Various sedatives such as diazepam. Anti-epileptic drugs, such as phenytoin sodium, diazepam and carbamazepine and other drugs. Drugs that have a relaxing effect on the muscles such as clozoxazone also have some effect and can relieve the symptoms in a few patients.  2.Alcohol injection therapy: For patients with ineffective drug therapy and severe symptoms, alcohol injection therapy with different concentrations can be considered. Anhydrous alcohol is injected directly into the facial nerve trunk to temporarily interrupt the conduction function of the facial nerve and relieve facial muscle twitching. However, this treatment has the risk of causing permanent facial paralysis and is recommended to be used with caution.  3.Botulinum toxin type A injection therapy: A tiny amount of botulinum toxin type A is injected into the facial expression muscles, which can lead to muscle relaxation and paralysis, and may achieve the effect of relieving spasm. After the injection of botulinum toxin type A, the muscle spasm can be relieved rapidly in a short period of time, but usually relapses in 3-6 months, botulinum toxin can be repeatedly injected, but the efficacy gradually decreases, and multiple injections of botulinum toxin may lead to light facial paralysis of the face.  4. Since facial muscle spasm is caused by the facial nerve in the brain receiving long-term compression from arterial blood pressure, resulting in facial muscle twitching caused by increased excitability of the facial nerve, the main method of treating facial muscle spasm at present is to perform a minimally invasive surgery to open the vascular pad of the compressed facial nerve, and the effect of cure can be achieved.  When facial muscle twitching is accompanied by other cranial nerve injury or limb dysfunction, or accompanied by involuntary limb movement, intracranial injury should be considered and should be treated immediately in a hospital. The specific treatment method needs to go to the regular hospital to register neurosurgery, subject to the face-to-face consultation of the specialist. (The specific drugs mentioned in the article should be prescribed according to the specialist’s interview.)