Late summer and early fall, the weather turned cool, people are not quite ready to enter the fall, sleep is still used to turn on the fan or air conditioning, or open the window, it is easy to catch a cold, in fact, there is a disease is very easy to suffer from, that is, facial paralysis. And in early spring, when everything is revived, viruses can easily attack the human body. When the immune function of one’s own organism is weak, when one catches a cold, when one’s face gets cold or when inflammation occurs in similar tissues and organs, one is also prone to facial paralysis. Concept of facial paralysis What is facial paralysis? It is a condition in which the mouth and eyes are tilted to one side, also known as orofacial tilt. It can be divided into central facial paralysis and peripheral facial paralysis, central facial paralysis is mostly seen in cerebrovascular diseases, such as cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, etc., mostly seen in middle-aged and old people; today, we mainly talk about peripheral facial paralysis, also known as Bell’s palsy or facial neuritis, which is a kind of disease with the spontaneous facial nerve paralysis as the main symptom. The main difference between peripheral facial paralysis and central facial paralysis is that central facial paralysis is limited to paralysis of the expression muscles below the eye fissure on the affected side, whereas peripheral facial paralysis usually results in paralysis of the facial expression muscles on half of the face including the frontal lines. Causes of facial paralysis So, what are the causes of facial paralysis? How does facial paralysis occur? The disease can develop in any season, and the incidence is higher in spring and autumn. Some people start the disease due to local wind and cold, and it may be caused by ischemia, edema, and compression of nerve tissues due to spasm of blood vessels that nourish the nerves locally. Or due to viral or bacterial infection, axonal myelin degeneration, or due to inflammatory adhesions, osteophytes, swelling and compression of the facial nerve, resulting in swelling, compression, blood circulation disorders, degeneration, necrosis and lead to facial nerve palsy. However, it is observed that immunity generally decreases during the onset of the disease in most patients, most commonly seen after excessive fatigue, cold, high tension, tooth extraction or otitis media. Symptoms of facial paralysis What are the symptoms of facial paralysis? Usually, the disease starts acutely, every time when waking up from sleep, or sleeping at night blowing fan, air conditioning, or in the car when leaning against the window blowing into the cold wind, etc., suddenly found that one side of the facial expression muscles suddenly paralyzed, when brushing the teeth leakage, food residues in the teeth and cheeks between the food and often drooling from the corner of the mouth down, the corner of the mouth skewed to the healthy side, nasolabial folds become shallow, the patient can’t frown, close the eyes, teeth, drums cheeks, etc.. Some patients have mild pain behind the ear on the same side a few days before the onset of the disease. In addition, facial nerve injury will make the anterior two thirds of the tongue taste less, and the sense of taste will be weakened when eating. Acupuncture is the preferred treatment for facial paralysis What are the common treatments for facial paralysis? Facial paralysis should be treated in time when it is found, do not miss the best treatment period. Modern medicine mainly uses hormones, B vitamins and physical therapy. However, modern clinics generally believe that the combination of Chinese and Western medicine, especially acupuncture, is the preferred treatment for this disease. We have summarized a set of comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic plan for the staged treatment of facial paralysis by combining Chinese and Western medicine in our clinical work for many years. Mainly, facial paralysis is divided into acute stage, remission stage and sequelae stage, and different treatment programs are adopted according to the characteristics of the disease in different periods. In the acute stage (within 7-10 days), according to the lightness of the disease and the characteristics of the meridians in the junior high school, the floating stabbing method and giant stabbing method are used, together with the Chinese herbs that detoxify the epidemiology, dispel the wind and open the channels; in the remission stage (about 1 month), the disease enters into the recovery stage, and the meridian stabbing method is used, and the manipulation method is based on the flat tonicity and the flat diarrhea, and the acupuncture points of the hand, foot and yangming meridian are the main points, together with the herbs that open the channels and activate the collaterals; in the sequel stage (the person who has not been cured for 2 months), the disease is seen mostly in the patients of intractable facial palsy Clinical observation, mostly seen in the elderly and weak, or accompanied by periauricular facial herpes zoster virus infection, the treatment of this period is difficult, slow, mainly using penetrating needle method, and more complementary method and moxibustion, the use of supportive complementary qi and meridians and herbs, for the efficacy of one month is still not ideal, to have long-term treatment of psychological preparation, some patients even treatment for up to 1-2 years, but as long as adherence to However, with persistent treatment, patients with facial paralysis sequelae will gradually recover. In addition to acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, we can also combine the use of antiviral, nutritive neurological and other Western medical therapies, using a combination of Chinese and Western medicine to achieve better results. What should I pay attention to when I have facial paralysis? First of all, it should be treated as soon as possible. The earlier the treatment, the faster the recovery and the better the treatment effect. It is recommended that you must go to a regular hospital for treatment, and it is best not to go to unauthorized private clinics or listen to what the ancestors, secret recipes and other false propaganda, so as not to delay the treatment time; secondly, facial paralysis treatment should pay attention to the face to avoid blowing into the cool wind again, it is best to put on a mask; the diet should be as light as possible, and should not be consumed greasy, fat, sweet and spicy stimulation of the products; eyes if the closure is not tight, buy eye drops with anti-inflammatory effects Prevent eye inflammation. Prevention of facial paralysis How to prevent facial paralysis? Don’t sleep with the fan on, don’t open the window at night, expose your face to the window, and don’t sleep by the window when riding in the car. Exercise more often, especially if you have suffered from facial paralysis, to improve physical fitness, avoid overwork, reduce work pressure, and systematically treat diseases such as colds, toothache or otitis media in a timely manner. For people with a family history of facial paralysis should pay more attention to prevention.