Thank you for this post. The link with cold water was very informative.
I dated a girl once who had Bell’s Palsy. Part of her face was permanently paralyzed - but not in a severe way. It’s not something that really screamed at you, but it was noticeable. She was actually pretty cute, I don’t think it really hindered her dating life. She was also pretty overweight - I think that irritated her more than the Bell’s Palsy honestly. She was very gregarious though, so she was not someone who necessarily depended solely on her physical appearance for popularity. We broke up because her quick temper and my social denseness were not a real good match.
I realize this is an 11-year-old post, but it’s such a classic example of crediting a dubious therapy for relieving a condition whose natural history is that it gets much better, or resolves completely in the great majority of patients.
If after three weeks you do pretty much anything for Bell’s palsy, it’s bound to improve.
Of course, this also goes for steroid and antiherpetic medication, whose efficacy is dubious as well.
My only residual from Bell’s palsy years ago is that I can’t do the horsie whuffling noise that I used to be able to do. 
I’ve suffered from Bell’s Palsy - once.
I’ve always believed that it happened as a result riding pillion on a motorcycle, with my face turned sideways into the breeze.
However, this might have been purely coincidental with some other stimulus, of which I was unaware. Anyway, overnight the right side of my face became distorted and ‘frozen’ - I couldn’t close my right eye.
The first doctor I consulted about this shook me to the core; he told me it was ‘palsy of the seventh cranial nerve, commonly called Bell’s palsy’.
What immediately concerned me (as a teenager at the time, and having observed ‘cerebral palsy’) was the very sound of the word.
But it got even worse when he told me that it could (and I think he might’ve even added ‘probably’ would) last rest of my life.
With one eye seized open I eventually got to sleep that night - this was the first night of the rest of my Cyclopic life, remember.
The next day I decided I must seek a second opinion.
So I presented myself to this old female doctor, and told her my story - like, I didn’t fancy the idea of sleeping the rest of my life like a dog. And, how was I ever going to attract a mate with a face like that?
However, when I told her about the ‘rest of life’ prognosis she almost fell off her chair, laughing.
She told me that Bell’s palsy *always *cures itself (though this may not be absolutely true) and mine would be gone within a fortnight.
And, she was dead right.
Bell’s palsy does not always cure itself. I have a friend who had it several years ago and still has noticeable paralysis to the side affected. Yes, there is improvement, but not complete recovery.