Facial numbness following an accident

[Suzen]

I recently fell down and hit my face.  Since that time I've had numbness in the right side of my nose and down through my right cheek, lip and front tooth.  Do I have nerve damage and will it go away on it's own?   Suzen

[osteodoc10]

Yes you have nerve damage; this is why you are feeling numbness. The amount of recovery you will have depends on how badly you injured the nerve. You could lose feeling forever or total feeling could come back. It can take several weeks for a nerve to heel. Regardless, you should see a doctor and make sure you havent fractured your maxilla (cheek bone), which could be pressing on the nerve and causing further irreversible damage.

[Jenny Wren]

My brother-in-law fell on the ice back in February, broke the maxillary bone, and orbital, had to have reconstructive surgery, he has damage to his trigeminal nerve, lip numbness, painful teeth, and achey around his entire eye.  Get to a doc and have a brain MRI done, this can be serious if not treated.  The ER actually wanted to life flight my brother-in-law to Pittsburgh, they told him there that if you have a fracture in your face and just a little sliver of bone can go to your brain.  PLEASE go get checked out.  Take care

[joker56]

a year ago, i was headbutted on the left-side of the face. since then, pain and numbness has stayed on the left cheek, also around my left eye, the left side of my nose and down to my upper-lip, gum and front teeth. i'm very worried that this could be permanant. is there any ways or methods that i can use to completly cure this problem?

[vega1318]

A friend of mine had a bad facial injury and had the same kind of sensory disturbance as you describe.   After about 1 month, her feeling came back.   Depending on what happenned to your nerve (whether it was temporarily compressed or completely crushed), the feeling may or may not come back.   After a period of time, you may find that you develop different sensation, such as tingling, in that area -- that is a good sign, don't be alarmed it means the nerves are growing back slowly but it actually takes a few months for that to happen.  

I don't think there's any cure - some have suggested Coenzyme Q10 but it unlikely works.  

[erics75218]

do any of you all have any updatedes to this...I see lots of posts regarding this situation, but no resolution posts.  That tells me that the numbness has gone away, but it'd be comforting to know if this is the case.

[Tennisfan]

i agree! i'm "suffering" from the same issue. It's been three weeks now and i'm gonna see a neurologist at the end of the wek finally! lol

[erics75218]

Tennis fan, has it gotten ANY better.  I noticed today, that I can feel around the crease on my nose by my nostril in the area of my face that is numb, and that made me feel good.  I licked my finger and could feel the wetness..sick...but I was happy.  I think that means at least SOME of the nerve is still connected...YES!!! So I hope that, combined with the tingles and occasional pain in my numb teeth mean that the sensory nerve is INDEED connected and in a FEW SHORT DECADES I will regain feeling!!  It's only been 6 days...I recommend keeping a log of the numbness so you can tell for real what is going on.  

I go to a neurologist on Monday.  Today my ENT said that was a waste of time.  This nerve, runs underneath the eyeball, meaning they can't "tease" it into sending signals because they can't get anything under the eye to touch the nerve to test it.  He said if it's severed he feeling is gone forever and if it's just stretched, or torn a bit, it will grow back over time and he said 4 months'ish.  He told me, when I said that I could feel cold in that little area, oh well you will probably get it back.  

I will let you know what the doctor tells me on Monday.  Lets keep this thread alive, because there is a lack of information concerning this other than I notice a bunch of people have this problem following facial trauma.  And like I said, no posts that say "I GOT MY FEELING BACK" or "IT'S GETTING WAY BETTER NOW"..so either people are blowing themselves away or it IS in fact getting better! hahah

[erics75218]

OK update.  It's only brain and spinal nerve cells that can't repoduce/heal...not "superficial" nerves, so I don't know what that ENT was talkin' about.

The neurologist seemed very unconcerned with my ability to get feeling back.  He took a pin, and stuck my face and what do you know I could feel pain in the numb areas of my cheek, he said the nerve is just damaged and it's going to take longer than 2 weeks.

All that being said, the numb areas are different now 2 weeks out.  I can feel temperature in some areas where I couldn't...and I have regained almost all the feeling in an area by the crease of my left nostril all the way through, like a little river to my cheek.  This "river" seperates 2 areas of numbness on my lip, and on my cheek.

Anyways..................

[Tennisfan]

Hey wassup! Sorry i haven't responded in a while but been a lil' busy. Well last week I went to the hospital to see the neurologist and he said and did basically the same thing. He took a sharp object a gently put it to my face to see if i could feel it. I've regained some feeling in places that there wasn't before but an area under my eye right side of my nose to upper lip are still efected. I can feel very little feelin. He said some nerve in my cheek was broken or something and that it takes time to recover.He said every week a little bit heals which is why it takes so much time. The most important thing is that he said i should get full feelin in a month or two. I'm scheduled to follow up with him in about 8 weeks! Just hearin that has made my days go a lil bit easier even though there are days when i feel like it's driving me crazy!!! lol

[erics75218]

ok, it's now 2 days and 2 months past the day my facial damage occured.  And for about a week I've on occasion "forgot" that my lip is still a bit numb.  I have feeling in my entire face now, where there was none before.  I can still feel in some minor areas the furthest away from the injury "something"...but it's hard to describe.  It's not annoying and I expect it to continue to get better.

So all that being said..........I say 2 month recovery time on this bad boy!  GOOD NEWS!!!!!

[ATLien]

Hello everyone, this has been helpful.  I have numbness on left side of my nose, teeth and left side of my upper lip.  I went to my PCP and she prescribed Neurotin for 30 days.  Did anyone else get medication or just let it heal on it's own?  I do have some sensation and I'm getting a tingling sensations every week and some sharp shooting pains so I'm hopeful, but just curious if I should take the Neurotin or not.  The doctor took xrays and states there is no fracture of any kind.