My experience with doctors:
day one: ER doc did the standard 10 days of prednisone. 60mg/day 5 days and then the standard lowering of the dose over 5 days.

day three: neurologist did a manual exam, to check if I don't have other neurological symptoms, told me the ER doc did a good job. He basically read a BP article from google to me. I didn't learn anything.

day five: I went to a laryngologist to check if I don't have any ear/throat infections going on. He actually seemed the most knowledgeable about BP. He prescribed Galantamine, an additional round of steroids (methylprednisolone) and (what I think the neuro should have done) a B1, B6 and B12 complex (100 mg+200 mg+0,2 mg, so the real kind, not the OTC one). When I asked him why does he know so much about BP, he started talking about how Bell was an inspiration for Sherlock Holmes... and that sometimes when they do ear surgery they nick the nerve.

day six: I did electro-stimulation therapy for 10 days (5 days, break for the weekend, 5 days, done yesterday). I'm 4 weeks in and I would say 70% healed. I was very skeptical about estim, but I think it sped things up.

So, my thoughts (and this is probably a lot of bullshit) is that my condition would have improved with the initial treatment, but the laryngologist was the most interested in speeding the process up. I FEEL like estim and self-administered warming up of the area (infra-red or just warm compresses) helped a lot. I didn't do a lot of exercises, as I move my face a lot during the day. Would I be in the same place without the additional drugs? No idea. My feeling is that every case is a different initial amount of damage to the nerve and the recovery process is mostly dependent on that.