Effectiveness of Low-Level Laser Therapy Vs Ultrasound in Patients with Moderate to Severe Bell’s Palsy.

BACKGROUND: There are many factors that may cause facial paralysis. They can be idiopathic, trauma, infection, diabetes mellitus and other inflammatory causes. Many interventions are available for the treatment of Bell’s palsy. Therefore, need for the present research is to find-out the effectiveness of low-level laser therapy and ultrasound in moderate to severe bell’s palsy. OBJECTIVE: This objective of this research is identifying and comparing the effectiveness of LLLT and Ultrasound in the subjects with moderate to severe BP. METHODS: A sample of 20 patients was recruited from Saveetha medical college and hospital. They were randomly segregated into 2 groups – group A and group B. The inclusion criteria were irrespective of age or gender and consisted of any patient identified having moderate to severe BP with House-Brackmann scale of 1-5. Patients diagnosed with central nervous system pathology or loss of sensation over the face, or a repeated case of Bell’s palsy were excluded from the study. Group A was intervened by low-level laser therapy and group B was intervened by Ultrasound therapy. RESULTS: The comparison between low-level laser therapy group and ultrasound group showed statistical difference between the post-test values. It has been found that on comparison of both groups, patients of group A showed statistical improvement in comparison with patients of group B. CONCLUSION: The findings of this research shows that low-level laser therapy has significant improvement than ultrasound therapy for the patients recognized with BP by improving facial symmetry and functioning. Therefore, after comparison of the outcomes of both the groups, this research concludes that LLLT is more beneficial in treating BP than ultrasound therapy.