Electroacupuncture for facial paralysis

Facial paralysis is a common facial disease in summer and winter. The biggest harm of this disease to patients is that it affects their normal appearance. The symptoms of crooked mouth and squinting eyes will also affect their normal life. The treatment of facial paralysis has always been a focus of many people. There are many methods for treating facial paralysis on the market. Which ones are the best treatments? Let’s talk about electroacupuncture treatment for facial paralysis!

Facial neuritis, commonly known as facial nerve paralysis (i.e. facial nerve paralysis), " crooked mouth" and "hanging wire wind", is a disease characterized by motor dysfunction of facial expression muscles. It is a common and frequently occurring disease that is not limited by age. The common symptoms are facial paralysis and eye deviation, and patients are often unable to complete even the most basic movements such as raising eyebrows, closing eyes, and puffing out lips.

From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine , regardless of whether facial paralysis is caused by the invasion of wind-cold or wind-heat, the root cause is the patient's own weakness of vital energy, emptiness of meridians, which leads to the inability of qi and blood to flow normally, causing the facial muscles to be malnourished and induce it. The art of acupuncture is to regulate and dredge the meridians by "tonifying the deficiency and purging the excess" so that the patient's Qi and blood can flow in a balanced and normal manner, thereby nourishing the normal activity of the affected side muscles. Electroacupuncture treats diseases by outputting pulse current through fine needles to act on acupuncture points, meridians or a specific part of the human body. Today, the use of electroacupuncture has become a common technique used by some doctors to treat facial paralysis (and of course many acupuncture indications). However, we have found in clinical practice that it is the "culprit" that causes the sequelae of facial paralysis.

Under normal physiological conditions, the nerve membrane is semi-permeable, with cations on the surface and anions inside the membrane. If improper and frequent electroacupuncture stimulation is used on the affected area, the permeability of the nerve membrane will be accelerated and depolarization will occur, resulting in changes in the permeability of the facial nerve membrane, and the rearrangement of anions and cations, causing continuous congestion in the local tissue, reducing the excitability of the nerves, and causing facial nerve cells to fatigue. The condition is in a relatively static state, leading to edema of the muscles in the facial paralysis area, which is not conducive to recovery.

When the diseased facial nerve is subjected to excessive electrical stimulation or excessively frequent and strong tremors, it will cause complete degeneration of the facial nerve, and it is very likely to cause sequelae such as mouth-eye coordination, contracture, and spasm on the affected side.

Although acupuncture should be the first choice for treatment as early as possible in the acute stage of facial nerve paralysis , the stimulation intensity of electroacupuncture is much greater than manual twisting, and it has a certain effect on muscle recovery and repair of nervous system damage. Repeated improper, frequent, and long-term use of electroacupuncture stimulation will further damage the positive energy, allow the evil energy to linger, break the qi and hurt the blood, and cause muscle adaptation phenomenon (muscle fatigue) in the affected area, which will aggravate the condition, greatly increase the possibility of sequelae, and increase the difficulty of treatment. Of course, the use of electroacupuncture in treating the sequelae of facial paralysis is another matter.

Then there is the problem of the patients themselves. If the patient has always had a poor physical condition, has been suffering from long-term illness, or has complications such as diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, it will be unfavorable for the recovery of facial paralysis. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "the heart opens up to the face". Due to "uneasy mind", the orifices outside the heart will be in a tense state for a long time and cannot relax, which is not conducive to the recovery of facial paralysis. In addition, during the entire treatment process, the patient frequently rubbed the facial muscles on the affected side with his hands, and did not pay attention to gargling or washing his face with cold water, and avoided eating raw, cold, and spicy foods. Exposure to wind and cold or lack of local warmth can also be a major cause of sequelae. Once the muscles in the affected area are rubbed and sag, they cannot be restored.