Experience with acupuncture for facial paralysis?

[rachelnyc]

Hi all,

I'm 3 months post-op, from 2.5cm left AN retrosigmoid. I have SSD and complete facial paralysis left side. While the doctors anticipate my face (and eye) to return, I'm very scared. I've noticed very little change since surgery. I wondering what others experienced at the 3 month mark and what, if any, treatments did you seek? I was curious if anyone did acupuncture or facial physical therapy? I'm in NYC so I would appreciate any names of specialists who are known in their respected fields.

Thanks!
Rachel

[Debbi]

Hi Rachel,

Three months is very early in the recovery process for facial nerves - I hadn't gotten any real movement back that early. I started to see noticeable improvements at about 6 months and eventually regained about 85-90% of movement back.  I was told to be very cautious about acupuncture in the face as it is possible to damage the nerves further if someone places a needle even a bit out of place. 

Have you seen a facial retraining specialist?  If not, you may want to contact NYU Langone's physical therapy department.  They have at least one facial therapist who trained with Jackie Diels (who is considered to be one of the top facial therapists in the world) and they would be able to help you assess what kinds of things you can/should be doing now to help your face recover normal movement. 

Do be very careful about trying to force movement in the face as you can cause more problems with synkinesis by doing that. 

Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

Debbi