Tingling in face can manifest in a few different ways. You can have tingling all over your face or on just one side of your face. The tingling can be painful or simply uncomfortable. Some people have different tingling sensations when they touch their face or when it is simply left alone. The tingling can be accompanied by numbness, blisters, or a change in skin color. You can even have feelings like bugs crawling around under your skin or a hair trapped against your face that you cannot dislodge. In severe cases, you can even have paralysis of part of your face.
Tingling in the face is rarely a life-threatening issue, but it can be a serious symptom when combined with other problems. For instance, tingling in the face with difficulty walking can be a sign of multiple sclerosis. On the whole, though, tingling in the face may not mean anything more than that you are feeling stressed out. This is the most common cause for this symptom.
You can have tingling in your face for a number of reasons. One simple reason you may have this symptom is stress or anxiety. With the release of adrenaline during a stressful period, you could have tingling that extends all over your face. Sometimes, you can even fixate on the sensation and make it worse by increasing your anxiety over it.
Another common cause of tingling in the face is a nerve problem. The trigeminal nerve is just one of the cranial nerves that supplies feeling to your face. If this nerve becomes pinched or injured, you could have numbness, tingling, and paralysis to your face. The severity of the symptoms would be dependent on how badly the nerve was injured. Sometimes neck injuries can cause this type of nerve damage.
A stroke can cause tingling in your face, but this is a very rare symptom of a stroke. Most likely, a stroke will produce full out paralysis in your face and numbness. However, some strokes can manifest as minor tingling on one side of your face, so if you are experiencing symptoms such as slurred speech or paralysis to a limb, you should see a doctor immediately.
You can also have tingling in your face due to exposure. The most common exposure to cause this symptom is when you expose your face to cold air. In some people, the sensation is enough to cause tingling. Toxins and chemicals are other causes of tingling in your face. Even some medications and vitamin deficiencies, such as the B vitamins, can cause nerve damage and tingling to your face.
Multiple sclerosis is another consideration in face tingling because this disease can cause damage to the nerves and the spinal cord. However, this is not a likely cause of tingling in the face, and it would be a rare symptom of the disease. If you are having persistent facial tingling accompanied by trouble walking, trouble speaking, or tingling in other areas of the body, then you should see a doctor for a complete work-up.
Some uncommon reasons for tingling in the face include tumors that are growing on one of the nerves that supply feeling to your face. Head injury or tumors to the brain can cause you to have some tingling in your face, and migraines can cause you to experience this symptom. If you have shingles, which is a disease related to chicken pox, it can cause you to have tingling in your face, especially if you have some of the marks appearing on your face. However, these are all rare causes of this symptom and are unlikely to be the cause of your condition.
The treatment for tingling in your face is dependent on the cause. If stress or anxiety is the cause of your facial tingling, then mediation, taking a walk or other stress reducing activities may help. If you have a known case of anxiety disorder, taking medication prescribed for your episodes, such as Xanax, may help to decrease the amount of tingling you are experiencing. You may also want to examine your life and find ways to reduce the stress you are dealing with.
For other causes, such as a stroke, you should seek a doctor's attention immediately. This is even more important if you are having other signs of a stroke, such as slurred words, difficulty walking, or paralysis on one side of your body. Tingling in the face is not normally a sign of stroke, however, so other symptoms will tip you off.
If you have a nerve problem, such as an entrapped nerve or multiple sclerosis, you should see your doctor for further help. He can perform tests on your nerves to get to the root cause of why you are experiencing tingling in your face. If you have an entrapped nerve, you can have surgery performed on your neck to release the nerve. With multiple sclerosis, certain medications are often helpful in decreasing the progression of the disease. In these cases, you doctor needs to fully examine you and run a full battery of tests.