Book an Appointment
2012-06-13
Case Sharing
41-year-old Ms. Chen is engaged in the design industry. In August 2011, she found that her left face suddenly suffered from numbness. From a small area of her face at the beginning, the numbness extended to her whole face in the later stage. A few weeks later, she felt sore and weak in her neck, and her left eye began to have blurred vision, but there was no headache or dizziness. It is especially serious every time she lower your head to work for a long time or encounter work pressure.
At first she thought she had a stroke, but after brain scans and blood tests, there were no abnormalities.
When Ms. Chen was checked, it was found that her cervical spine was dysfunction, her cervical spine movement was blocked, her hand muscles were weakened, and her neck and back muscles had gone stiff. Her facial numbness should be caused by cervical spine lesions. After several Cox® decompression therapy, Miss Chen’s facial numbness disappeared completely.
Case Analysis
Cervical disc herniation generally affects neck, upper back pain and hand numbness, but it turns out that some patients’ facial numbness is caused by protruding cervical disc and compressing the nerves, causing facial pain or numbness.The facial sensation is controlled by a trigeminal nerve and is responsible for transmitting information. This trigeminal nerve passes through the small foramen of the skull and enters the brain to connect to the nucleus of the nerve.
The sensory nerves of the first, second and third cervical vertebrae of the cervical spine are connecting and converging with this trigeminal nerve. Therefore, if the third cervical disc is herniated, the information of pain or numbness will also be sent to the trigeminal nerve. The nerves signal the patient feel facial pain or numbness, which is a nerve reflex condition.
The sensory nerves of the first, second and third cervical vertebrae are connecting and converging with this trigeminal nerve
Other symptoms that causes facial numbness
To correctly diagnose this disease, we must first exclude other possible causes of facial paralysis, including stroke, spine disease, nerve infection, inflammation, neuropathy, tumor, vitamin deficiency, other autoimmune diseases, stress, depression, panic etc.
Stroke-The patient has facial numbness and weakness in one hand or foot, headache, and does not respond to surrounding conditions.
Spinal disease ~ spondyloarthritis, osteoporosis, disc degeneration, intervertebral disc herniation, etc.
Inflammation of nerve infection ~ Herpes zoster virus infection can cause facial paralysis, rash, itching, fever, chills, headache and fatigue.
Neuropathy- Damage to the nerves of the face, head, neck and spine can also cause facial numbness. Nerve damage caused by diabetes or neuropathy caused by drugs can cause facial numbness.
Tumors- schwannomas that grows in the inner sheath of nerves can also cause facial nerve numbness and pain. It can also make the mouth numb, and it can also make the patient hearing loss and facial sensation.
Lack of Vitamin ~ Lack of Vitamin 12 can cause facial and body numbness. Others such as lack of calcium, potassium or sodium in the body can cause facial numbness.
Autoimmune diseases-such as Sjogren disease, Scleroderma, and Lupus Eythematosus (SLE) can also cause facial numbness.
