**1. Introduction**

The seventh cranial nerve, commonly known as the facial nerve, is a compound nerve having motor, parasympathetic, and sensory components. Its motor portion innervates muscles for facial movement and expression. In addition, it is involved in taste over the anterior two-third of the tongue. Its parasympathetic component supplies secretomotor fibers to submandibular and sublingual salivary glands and the lacrimal gland. A small twig of this nerve carries sensations from the pinna and the external auditory meatus.

Facial paralysis is a common clinical condition that significantly impacts a patient's quality of life [1]. Seventh cranial nerve paralysis has been categorized as supranuclear if the lesion is above its nucleus in the pons and as intranuclear if the lesion is below the nucleus. This categorization is important from diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic points of view and must be made clinically at the initial presentation itself. The peripheral facial nerve palsy, popularly known as Bell's palsy, is an acute disorder of the facial nerve, which produces full or partial loss of voluntary movement on one side of the face. Less common features are loss of taste sensation over the ipsilateral half of the tongue, hyperacusis, tingling or numbness of the cheek/mouth, and ocular pain.
