Facial Paralysis – Muscle Transfer

Transcript

In the procedure, we’re actually taking a biting muscle and we’re using it for the purposes of smiling. The reason for that is because the facial nerve that’s responsible for smiling is no longer working. The secondary question is, is that going to affect my bite? And the answer is no. There’s typically three other muscles that do essentially the same biting function. So basically what we’re doing is retraining a muscle that’s used for biting for the purposes of smiling. Depending upon the type of procedure being performed, it can take anywhere between six to eight hours to perform the procedure. And in many cases, for example, with the lengthening Temporalis Myoplasty, you can expect to go home the same day.