Physiotherapy Management Of Right-Sided Bell's Palsy Using Electrical Stimulation, Massage, And Mirror Exercise At Hermina Soreang Hospital

Abstract

Bell's palsy is a unilateral peripheral facial nerve paralysis that may cause facial asymmetry, impaired eye closure, difficulties with eating and drinking, and psychosocial consequences. This scientific paper aims to describe clinical changes following physiotherapy management consisting of electrical stimulation (ES), massage, and mirror exercise in a patient with right-sided Bell's palsy. A descriptive case-report method was used in a 15-year-old female patient who underwent six physiotherapy sessions from March 7 to April 25, 2026. Evaluation was performed using the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Ugo Fisch Scale, Manual Muscle Testing (MMT), and the Facial Disability Index (FDI) instrument as used in the case report. Tenderness decreased from 3 to 1, movement-related pain from 4 to 2, and resting pain from 1 to 0. The mean MMT score of eight facial muscles increased from 2.0 at T1 to 5.0 at T6. The Ugo Fisch score increased from 58 to 99. The mean FDI physical-domain score increased from 2.8 to 5.0 and the social-domain score from 3.6 to 5.0. These findings indicate improvements in pain, motor function, and functional ability after six intervention sessions. However, because this case report had no control group and used combined modalities, the changes cannot be causally attributed to any single modality. Combined intervention may be considered as part of an individualized rehabilitation program with periodic monitoring.