Bell’s Plays is a lower motor neurone (LMN) lesion of the facial nerve (CN VII), which causes one side of the face to “droop” [1% of cases are bilateral], and patients are often concerned that it is a stroke.

However, unlike in stroke the whole face is affected, in stroke and other upper motor neurone (UMN) lesions the upper portion of the face is unaffected due to input from both sides of the brain. Read more