Nurse prescriber Michelle McLean shares her approach to using botulinum toxin in the treatment of facial palsy
In aesthetic practice, it has been seen that long-term facial palsy significantly impacts the aesthetic, functional and psychosocial wellbeing of patients.1,2
The condition can be derived from multiple aetiology such as Ramsay Hunt syndrome, infection, trauma, neurological conditions or tumours.3 It presents as a unilateral peripheral facial nerve palsy, which leads to involuntary static and dynamic variations of facial expression.3
The imbalance resulting from this muscular paralysis can significantly affect everyday tasks we take for granted, such as eating, drinking and articulation. Functional consequences can vary from difficulties with speech resulting from perioral synkinesis, to impaired vision from ocular synkinesis.4 Emotional expression is vastly affected due to these factors. Furthermore, when we consider the aesthetic appearance, most facial palsy patients feel unaccepted in society due to their asymmetry, and this has a pronounced, profound psychological effect on their wellbeing, self-esteem, anxiety, social isolation and…
