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Facial Nerve Damage
Last Update -
2/16/12
Index
- Introduction
- About the Facial Nerve
- Cause of Facial Nerve Damage
- Possible Facial Nerve Damage Concerns
- Healing Time
- Things That Can Aid in Healing
- Facial Nerve Physical Therapy
- Acupuncture
- Exercise
- Food, Supplements and Medication
- Facial Reanimation Surgery - Nerve Reconnection Surgery
- Related Resources
- Facial Nerve Physical Therapy
- Acupuncture
- Exercise
- Food, Supplements and Medication
- Facial Reanimation Surgery - Nerve Reconnection Surgery
Introduction
About the Facial Nerve
- Temporal Branch - This Nerve Branch effects the muscles in the Forehead.
- Temporal & Zygomatic Branch - Together these Nerve Branches effect the muscles control opening and closure of the Eye.
- Zygomatic Branch - This Nerve Branch effects the Upper Cheek.
- Buccal Branch - This Nerve Branch effects the Cheek and Above the Mouth Muscles.
- Marginal Mandibular Branch - This Nerve Branch effects the Chin Muscles.
- Cervical branch - This Nerve Branch some of the Neck Muscles.
Cause of Facial Nerve Damage
Possible Facial Nerve Damage Concerns
- Eyes - The nerves from the Zygomatic Branch results in eyelid problems. This nerve controls the ability or lack thereof to blink or produce tears. Normally blinking coats the eye with a tear each time, without the ability to do so different eye creams and eye protection is needed, or the cornea will crack and permanently damage vision in the eye. For some helpful resources on eye aids and protection - Resources - Eye Care
- Eating - Without the ability to move the Buccal branch and the Marginal Mandibular Branch, holding food in your mouth becomes very frustrating, and awkward. Drinking with a straw is often necessary.
- Talking - The same nerves that make eating difficult can also make properly or clearly pronouncing certain letters hard to do. Letters like - B, P, M and W.
- Droopy Face - Cheek Area
- Jaw Occlusion
Healing Time
Things that Can Aid in Healing
- Facial Nerve Physical Therapy
- Acupuncture
- Exercise
- Food & Herbs or Supplements
- Facial Reanimation Surgery
- Facial Nerve Physical Therapy
- Muscle Exercise Training - It is suggested to visit a physical therapist as soon as possible after the nerve is damaged for the best and most amount of results, including the prevention of Synkinesis (Movement that results in an involuntary contraction of other facial muscles. Example - the eye muscles causing the eye to squint when smiling)
- Massage Therapy
- Electrotherapy - There are different forms of electrical stimulation and it is usually not considered until well after neuropathy has set in. The stimulation jolts all the facial nerves at the same time and can make it harder to control different parts of the face individually, which is required for natural facial expressions Methods on this might include; Electrical Stimulation (ES), Electromyography Biofeedback (EMG Bio), Ultrasound, Laser, or Short-Wave Diathermy (SWD)
- Acupuncture
- Exercise
- Food & Herbs or Supplements
- Facial Reanimation Nerve Reconnection Surgery - aka Facial Hypoglossal
Related Resources:
Many of us with NF2 incur some degree of Facial Paralysis. In most cases when this happens it is usually a result of the facial nerve being cut or traumatized to gain access to a tumor close to or on other nerves that are more important.
Sometimes we require surgery between a tumor is life threatening, other times we have to choose between which health issues are more important of a concern to us. Tumor removal can be done with different surgical techniques for different approaches to remove tumors based on each tumors exact location, size, shape and type and the facial nerve is often in the way during certain surgeries and is either cut or otherwise weakened.
Nerves that are a part of the Central Nerve System (CNS) do not heal as easily as nerves in other parts of the body. For the last few years there has been some success in healing from nerve grafts on the facial nerve after it is cut. This has allowed the nerve to heal more completely after surgeries
There are things that can be done to help the nerve heal that should be considered, which will be discussed here.
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The facial nerve branches off to smaller nerves and muscles that go to 5 different parts of the face. Therefore, when the nerve is damaged those smaller veins are not sent enough blood for their circulation which is necessary for muscles on the different areas of the face to move. Each nerve branch effects the movement of different muscles.
The image to the right and the description here is to give us a general understanding of how far the Facial Nerve reaches.
Nerves in the picture on the right, show where on the face, outside of the skull, that the nerve extends out from and to. The blue arrow is pointing is the approximate location where the vein extends outside of the skull, before branching to the different parts of the face.
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The most common reason for facial nerve damage for people with NF2, is during surgical attempts to preserve hearing in the Auditory Nerve.
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Based on my knowledge and experience as someone with NF2 who has dealt with facial paralysis after the facial nerve issues during brain surgery, the nerve doesn't show any signs of healing or of regaining movement till about 4 to 6 months after the damage occurs. Everyone is different, so it might take more or less time for different people, but regardless, the majority of the healing that will occur will be in the first year. The nerve damage will unlikely be completely restored on its own and some of the options below should be looked into as soon as possible.
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A few things can help encourage the most amount of healing:
Non-surgical options when possible should be considered before surgical options, but if after time passes those do not do enough for you Facial Reanimation is an option you may want to consider.
Facial nerve physical therapy can consist of different types of treatments which should be discussed with a physical therapist for what will work best for you at the stage your at in healing and how long the nerve has been in neuropathy (stasis, not working).
3 forms of possibly physical therapy include:
Acupuncture helps to stimulate blood to flow back to the different nerves in the face to encourage movement. For maximum results, starting it within a few months after a nerve is damaged is ideal, each weekly treatment will help encourage the blood flow back into the face to help regain control little by little.
It is important to get Acupuncture from someone who is a doctor. WARNING - Many offices that do Acupuncture also do Back Massage to ease back pain and is very dangerous for individuals with spine tumors and should not be done to any of us with NF2.
Warning!
It is very important to go to a medical professional, a certified doctor, for acupuncture. Needles placed in the wrong location can cause serious harm or even kill the patient being treated.
Since circulation can't extend to the face if general circulation is weak, exercise, specifically aerobic exercises, to stimulate overall circulation is also a good idea. To name a few - Walking, Jogging, Bicycling, Swimming or Dancing.
Antioxidants help encourage blood flow by helping to send more oxygen to veins; as a result they increase the circulation through the entire body.
A few glasses of water will also help with overall circulation. If you drink anything that dehydrates you like coffee or alcohol, you need to drink more than the standard amount of water for your body size.
Remember, all things should be taken in moderation.
Cayenne Pepper, Ginkgo Biloba, Garlic and Hawthorn Berry.
A few years after the facial nerve is damaged, you may want to consider Facial Reanimation surgery depending on how much has of the nerve has recovered or not. In this procedure the area the surgery happened is reopened from the ear down to the chin under the jaw bone. The nerve is reconnected to raise the droop in the face. There are different methods for this, talk to your doctors.
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