Facial Nerve Palsy: Part 2: Review of the Oral Symptoms and its Treatment

Facial nerve palsy is very common and all expression muscles of the face are paralyzed as a sequence. Inability to blink, facial asymmetry and oral incontinence following the paralysis leading to physical, psychological and social problems and reduce the quality of life. Paralysis of the oral cavity muscles can interfere with eating, drinking, talking and smiling. Many different types of procedures introduced for reconstruction of movement around orbital or oral cavities in these patients. In the first part of this study we discuss about the etiology and pathophysiology of the entity, signs and symptoms, and also peri-orbital treatments. In this section we review the oral problems and the options for their treatments. Primary repair, using nerve grafts, nerve transfer, regional muscle transfer, free functional muscle transfer accompanied with nerve transfer and static slings are the techniques that will be discussed. Also the maseter nerve as a newly re-introduced nerve transfer for acute and delayed reconstructions will be described.