OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of adults with peripheral facial paralysis (PFP) in idiopathic sentence recognition tests in quiet and noisy situations. CASE REPORT: Researchhas shown that the acoustic reflex (AR) is altered in the presence of an injury to cranial nerve VII. Because of the participation of the superior olivary nucleus in the recognition of auditory stimuli in the presence of competing noise, it is important to assess whether an injury to the facial nerve may cause communication difficulties inquiet and noisy situations. The survey was conducted on 13 adult subjects diagnosed with idiopathic PFP that were divided into 2 groups: G1, 6 subjects with an absent AR,and G2, 7 subjects with a present AR. Listas de sentenças em português (LSP), developed by Costa (in 1998), was used to obtain the recognition threshold of sentences in a quiet situation (SRTS) and the recognition threshold in a noisy situation (SRT), expressed by signal/noise. CONCLUSION: For G1, the SRT performance proved worse in the ear with PFP compared to that of the normal side, with a statistically significant difference. With respect to SRTs, G1 also showed a significantly worse performance as compared to G2. There was no significant difference in the S/N ratio in which the SRT was obtained while comparing individuals in G1 and G2; however, it was found that the mean SRT in G1 was worse than that inG2, i.e., individuals with efferent auditory system dysfunction, as evidenced by the absence of the AR, had more difficulty recognizing speech in the presence of competing sounds.