Facial twitching in children
If twitching occurs in children’s faces, the number of possible or probable causes is already considerably reduced: Alcohol and drugs are usually out of the question, medications also much less frequently than with adults – even if of course some children have to take medication and there have also been cases where especially small children have looted their parents’ medication and mistaken it for candy. Psychological stress, a spasm hemifacialis and multiple sclerosis, which are among the most common triggers of facial twitches in adults, are also considered very unlikely in children. If the twitching occurs repeatedly and reaches an intolerable level, it should still be clarified by a doctor.
Because it can be particularly stressful for children if they are perceived as “strange” by other children because of their twitching and thus become outsiders. As a rule, no dramatic causes for the twitching can be found, occasionally epilepsy can be diagnosed. In most cases, however, epilepsy can be effectively treated with an anticonvulsant, which also makes the facial twitches subside or even disappear completely. Of course, care must be taken to select a drug suitable for children. These include carbamazepine, valproate and lamotrigine.
Facial twitching and headaches
Patients in the recovery and rehabilitation phase after a stroke experience facial twitching significantly more frequently than the average general population. This is usually the case in patients whose face is also affected by the consequences of the stroke, for example in the form of numbness or paralysis. The accumulation of convulsions after a stroke is probably due to healing and restructuring processes in the brain, in which, for example, parts of dead nerve fibers regain a certain degree of functional efficiency or connections between nerve tracts are redesigned. In this sense, facial twitching after a stroke is therefore usually not a cause for concern, but rather a positive sign and expression of progressive healing.
Is that a tic?
In a way, this is a question of definition. In a broader sense, the term tic describes sudden, largely involuntary short utterances or movements of individual muscles or entire body parts, so that facial twitches also fall into this category. As a rule, however, such phenomena are only referred to as Tic if they can be suppressed for a more or less long period of time until the inner tension becomes too strong.
This is much more often the case with tics such as certain finger movements, winking or frowning. Twitching in the face, on the other hand, is not usually preceded by an inner compulsion; it usually happens completely unannounced and sometimes even without the person affected even noticing it. In summary, it can be said that facial twitching is by definition a tic, but in a narrower sense this term is reserved for other phenomena.
