Your facial nerve, which is also referred to as cranial nerve VII, is responsible for controlling the movement of the muscles within your face. Facial nerve damage, a condition sometimes called facial nerve palsy, can occur as the result of a number of different medical complications, including facial trauma, tumor growth or infection. Talk with your doctor immediately if you develop facial nerve damage symptoms, as these symptoms can indicate a more severe medical problem.
Facial Distortion
Facial nerve damage can cause your facial expressions or movements to appear distorted, warn health officials at Medline Plus, a medical information website provided as a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. You can experience difficulty voluntarily closing your eyes or making facial expressions, such as smiling or frowning. Your facial muscles can also appear to sag or droop, which can cause your face to feel abnormally stiff or taut.
Facial Paralysis
Normally, the facial nerve transmits messages between your brain and facial muscles telling them when and how to move. If your facial nerve becomes damaged, the nerve is unable to facilitate communication between your brain and your facial muscles. As a result, you can experience partial paralysis of one side of your face as a symptom of facial nerve damage, explain medical officials at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Facial paralysis can cause you to lose sensation in a specific region of your face, which initially can lead to tingling or numbness at the affected site. Paralysis can also make it difficult for you to voluntarily control your facial muscles and can contribute to problems eating or keeping food within your mouth while you are chewing.
Taste Changes
Your facial nerve also plays a role in your ability to taste food and produce saliva, explain medical professionals at Patient UK, a comprehensive health information website provided to patients by general practitioners and nurses within the United Kingdom. Damage to this nerve can lead to taste alterations, causing foods or beverages to taste unusual or bland. Certain patients can experience complete loss of taste (taste impairment) as a consequence of facial nerve damage.
Hearing Changes
If you experience damage to your facial nerve, you can develop hearing changes as a symptom of this condition. Sounds can become abnormally loud in one of your ears, explains Medline Plus, which can contribute to painful headache symptoms. You can become unusually sensitive to certain sounds--a condition referred to as hyperacusis. Facial nerve damage can also cause certain patients to experience painful, uncomfortable sensations behind one or both ears.
