Sir my mother age 65 yrs, diagnosed bell palsy for past 2 month. But till now do not have much improvement. She was treated in hospital for 4 days taking steroids for 1 month n right now doing physio. Is there any other treatment for it. Please advise.

Dr. Rajshekher GarikapatiNeurologist18yrs exp

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Hi lybrate-user - for "Bell's palsy" the treatment is a course of oral steroids in tapering doses for 7 days; after that period is over, the only intervention that has been shown to be better than placebo is physiotherapy. So, to give you a short answer - No, there is no (scientifically - proven) therapy which can be given to her at this point. I would like to point out a few things here: (1) Ensure the diagnosis is accurate; though Bell's is the most common condition, the age of 67 years would make us consider more serious conditions - at least to keep our eyes and ears open; (2) Even if there is no visible improvement after the use of steroid, at the very least, it prevents further worsening, which is a very important thing - because, the worst complication of Bell's palsy is the eyelid becoming so weak that the eye gets exposed and the cornea can suffer (secondary) exposure keratitis, leading, at its worst, to corneal blindness; so rest assured that the use of oral steroids was not a useless exercise; (3) Bell's palsy has a monophasic course - which is to say, it rarely, if ever, recurs - so much so that if facial palsy does recur in your mother's case, then the treating doctor should seriously consider alternative diagnoses. That is a point which should help you to relax. Do continue physiotherapy, it has been shown to have significant benefit - though you shouldn't be expecting miracles.  

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