1. Facial Tics and Repetitive Patterns
Facial tics, defined as repetitive movements or spasmodic muscle movements, happen to the facial muscles or eyes. The movements or spasms repeat the same pattern without any real cause or purpose. The facial tics most often start in childhood and dissipate or stop after a few months or years. They occur 3 to 4 times more often in boys than girls, and amazingly, one quarter of all children may have facial tics at some point in their childhood.
2. In the Blink of an Eye
Facial tics can take on various repetitive movements that make them easy to identify, such as eye squinting, eye blinking, nose wrinkling and twitching around the edges of the mouth. Other repetitive movements are also facial tics, such as throat clearing, deep throat noises or grunting sounds.
3. When to Look Deeper
Your family doctor should be aware of the presence of facial tics in your child. The doctor needs to evaluate and monitor the length of time the facial tics persist, as the facial tics may indicate a more serious underlying problem such as the presence of Tourette's syndrome. This is a rare condition that begins in childhood but that keeps developing into adulthood. The childhood facial tics would become more aggressive along with additional involuntary movements like shoulder shrugging or arm movements and loud vocal tics like sniffing, barking noises or loud, uncontrollable swearing.
4. Facial Tics, the Unsolved Mystery
Causes of facial tics are unknown. There have been many studies of why facial tics occur but not to any conclusive decisions. There have been studies on whether children taking medication to treat hyperactivity may develop facial tics if they were prone to the syndrome. There's no evidence to support this theory, as children being treated for attention-deficit disorder with facial tics take some of the same medications. Stress and anxiety have shown to increase the severity of facial tics in children as do tension and emotional strain.
5. Counseling Helps Children With Facial Tics
Facial tics usually stop during sleep, so there are indications that special techniques to help the child deal with anxiety and stress can help treat the facial tic disorder. The counseling could uncover some emotional problems and find ways to deal with those, to decrease the length and severity of the facial tics. There have also been some positive responses to the use of mild sedatives in reducing minor or less severe facial tics.
Member Comments