My understanding is that 'Bell's palsy' means idiopathic facial palsy. Therefore, I usually evaluate for other causes, depending on the clinical scenario, before calling it Bell's palsy. We see a lot of Lyme disease in PA. Facial palsy may be the initial manifestation of neurosarcoidosis and may res...

MRI scans and blood work for things such as sarcoidosis, Lyme disease, ANA, etc. If there is no improvement, I may not wait the full 6 months and consider further evaluation earlier.