Yes. Facial nerve injuries can be classified into three groups:
The Effects of Facial Palsy
Are there different degrees of injury?
The quality and duration of recovery is dependent on the severity of the initial injury. If the nerve has suffered nothing more than a mild trauma, recovery can be very fast, taking several days to several weeks. An “average” recovery is likely to take between a few weeks and a few months. The nerve regenerates at a rate of approximately 1-2 millimeters per day, and can continue to regenerate for 18 months, probably even longer. Improvement of appearance can continue beyond that time frame.
When facial palsy initially occurs the affected side(s) of your face will feel and look floppy as there are no nerve signals telling the muscles to contract. Once your face starts to recover you will notice that:
- Muscles in some areas begin to work again earlier than in other areas.
- In some areas you may notice different things about your face;
- The eye may seem smaller and the corner of the mouth may seem raised on the affected side.
- The cheek may feel tight and stiff. Don’t panic, you haven’t had a facial palsy on the other side.
- The cheek branches of the nerve are shortest therefore tend to recover first. Other branches take longer to get working again so the facial muscles can be unbalanced leading to overuse of the muscles that recover first.
- ⦁ As all the nerve branches recover you can help get the balance back in the face with lots of slow, careful retraining work guided by a specialist therapist.
- At first, movements may be asymmetrical and difficult but slow repetitive practice will eventually wake up your brain’s memory of how the movement used to work. This is a slow process but worth persevering with as small improvements add up to a big overall change.
- Facial retraining at this stage should be relaxed and non-effortful – preferably under the guidance of a specialist facial therapist.
- Synkinesis can occur in the later stages of recovery.
- The more severe your nerve injury is the more likely it is that you will develop synkinesis.
- Synkinesis is a medical term that means ‘unwanted movement’. Having synkinesis means that different parts of the face move together outside your control.
- It happens because as the nerves begin their recovery, if one branch of the nerve is activated all the others join in to try and help, e.g. you want to smile and the eye shuts.
- This situation will improve as recovery continues as long as you get into the habit of stopping the unwanted movements from happening when you don’t want them to (your therapist will advise you how to achieve this).
- Synkinesis also means some facial muscles act against each other in a ‘tug of war’ which can stop parts of the face from moving even though the nerve has recovered. The affected muscles have to be gently re-taught when to move and when to stay relaxed and then this has to be practised over and over again. It is important not to practice incorrectly as this can make the situation worse.
- If you put too much effort into a facial movement it can spill over to stimulate all the nerves and you will get unwanted activity in other areas. This is why facial exercises have to be slow, gentle and careful, stopping just before you get unwanted activity.
- Specialist techniques including biofeedback and focused relaxation can help refine movement patterns. These should be done under the supervision of a specialist facial therapist.
- The amount of effort needed to practice these facial retraining techniques is very low. Pushing your face to work harder will not make you get better more quickly.
- One exercise done perfectly is better than many done with poor control.
- A muscle in the ear (stapedius) can be affected causing sounds to appear louder on that side.
- Eating and drinking can be harder due to weakness of the cheek and lip seal.
- Food can collect in the affected cheek and be difficult to remove.
- Some people complain because they bite the inside of their cheek or lip.