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Former Senator Norm Coleman diagnosed with Bell's Palsy
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St. Paul, MN (AHN) - Former Sen. Norm Coleman has been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, a facial paralysis that is typically temporary and caused by still unknown factors.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Coleman first noticed a problem last week when he drank water and it dribbled down his face. The 60-year-old Republican is taking medication for the condition and has to put tape on one eye when he goes to sleep.
Coleman also speaks about his illness on bringmethenews.com, where video captures him speaking only from one side of his face. "It puts a lot of things in perspective - my smile is a part of me," he says.
More info here
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Treatment Available for Facial Paralysis?
Discussion in forum HERE
Air Force Print News|by Lt. Col. Lesa Spivey
SAN ANTONIO - Patients seeking help for facial paralysis have a new treatment option available now offered by doctors at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
Col. (Dr.) Alan Holck and Maj. (Dr.) Manuel Lopez are among only a few military or civilian surgeons in the country who perform a recently developed procedure called temporalis tendon transfer to treat patients suffering from facial paralysis due to conditions such as trauma, tumors, strokes, cancer, some surgeries and Bell's palsy.
The only other physicians who offer this treatment practice at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
The temporalis tendon transfer surgery can be performed in cases where injury to the facial nerve cannot be repaired or the nerve will not naturally recover. The procedure is relatively simple and straight forward. Only taking about 90 minutes to perform using one small incision (three centimeters), the surgery involves taking the muscle (the temporalis tendon) that controls movement and clinching of the jaw and re-inserting it into the musculature of the mouth (corner of the mouth) to restore movement and function.
The process of this dynamic muscle transfer is a promising option for facial reanimation in patients for whom nerve repair, grafting and nerve transfer are not possible.
"Loss of the facial nerve can be devastating and life-changing. The nerve provides motor movement to the face (overall facial animation). It allows you to smile, chew, close your eyes and raise your eyebrows," Dr. Lopez said.
"From the top of the face down, the problem usually starts at the brow which causes problems closing the eye," Dr. Holck said. "Subsequent drying of the eye can result in infections and loss of vision. The midface droops. The corner of the mouth also descends and, therefore, drinking becomes a problem. Patients will drool and have difficulty eating. Food tends to get lodged in their mouths. You become almost a social leper because you don't want to go out and keep having to get up to go wipe your mouth. And among other issues, the tip of the nose deviates and so it is really a problem. It is most importantly a functional issue but also has a devastating cosmetic component."
In addition to the temporalis tendon transfer, Dr. Holck and Dr. Lopez complete their comprehensive treatment by performing any necessary static procedures (pulling, tightening and lifting parts of the face) that do not involve muscles or nerves. Static procedures elevate and give symmetry to the face.
"An operation we'd do commonly is to elevate the eyebrow and that is a static elevation in which we restore symmetry from a droopy eyebrow to a more symmetric eyebrow. The upper eyelid generally doesn't close when you have a facial paralysis so what we do is put a weight, either platinum or gold, in the upper eye, to help the eyelid close to protect the eyeball. The lower eyelid generally won't have tone either (when the nerve is no longer functioning) so we elevate the lower eyelid to narrow the space between the two, for better closure, and we support it. Those are all standard procedures we've been doing as part of our comprehensive treatment," Dr. Lopez said.
The doctors have been performing the temporalis tendon transfer surgery for 16 months and have successfully treated nine patients.
The course of treatment for each patient is determined by a complete, individualized facial assessment in which each patient's deficits are determined.
"No one gets a blue-plate special," Dr. Holck said.
Milan Maymar, a cancer survivor, has benefitted from the successful treatment he received from Dr. Lopez.
"I was very skeptical at first. After consulting five plastic surgeons, Dr. Lopez was the sixth doctor I came to for help. Dr. Lopez' upbeat attitude, encouragement, skills and confidence quickly made me believe it was possible that something could be done to help me. Now that I've had the treatment, my speech has improved and my eye functions better. The results were even better than I anticipated," Mr. Maymar said.
When asked why only a small number of patients have been treated so far, the doctors said the numbers are not greater due to lack of awareness that the treatment is available. Many times, patients are turned away by other facilities and told there is nothing that can be done for them. However, Wilford Hall's team of doctors wants to get the word out and encourage others needing treatment to seek help.
Historically, the treatments for facial paralysis have not been great or long-lasting. But this new procedure, the temporalis tendon transfer, has proven to be a more efficient and effective method. The surgery takes minimum time to perform and the recovery is rapid with dramatic improvement expected within the first week.
"Patient satisfaction has been tremendous," Dr. Lopez said. "We're passionate about it. Just being able to restore function back to them is extremely rewarding for us."
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Israeli microsurgeon puts smiles on frozen faces
For Dr. Eyal Gur, small things bring great rewards. Really small things, because Gur is a microsurgeon, operating at the level of blood vessels (1mm wide), which enables him to transfer tissue from one part of the body to another, and to reattach severed parts.
And he does it very well. So well that Newsweek magazine last year named Gur, head of the Microsurgery Unit at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, as one of the top 10 microsurgeons in the world.
Sourasky is one of the leading centers for treatment of patients suffering paralysis of the face as a result of neurological disorders, tumors, trauma or viral infection, which often leave the corners of the mouth frozen. Gur's expertise is facial reanimation: a procedure that allows those who have suffered facial paralysis to regain movement.
The Newsweek description of his work gives an idea of the scope of his abilities. "As a surgeon, Gur navigates some of the toughest of surgical terrain - the human face has more nerve endings and muscles than any other animal's. First, he transplants a sensory nerve from the patient's calf to the non-paralyzed side of the face, connecting it like an extension cord to an active motor nerve. He waits, typically for nine months, while the new nerve grows along a conduit and reaches the paralyzed side of the face."
Sitting in his Sourasky office, Gur displays a picture of nine-year-old Yoan, who was born with facial paralysis on one side of his face. In his 'before' picture, Yoan smiles on one side of his face, while the other side remains immobile and expressionless.
"There's no happiness in that smile. I see misery and frustration," Gur told ISRAEL21c. "A smile, if you look in Webster's Dictionary, is not just motion obliquely across the face. It will say: 'simultaneous with sparkle in the eye.' It's not just, you know, a mechanical thing. It moves, but needs happiness."
Pointing to Yoan, he adds, "You see really sad eyes here."
When Gur and his colleagues operated on Yoan, they began by 'harvesting' a small nerve from his leg, leaving only a negligible spot of numbness. When a nerve is removed it becomes unviable, but its casing of fibers - called a 'myelin sheath' - remains intact. This was implanted into the paralyzed side of Yoan's face and threaded through to the functioning side.
The functioning side of the face has two main branches that create a smile: a major branch and a minor branch.
"The minor branch can be sacrificed to the procedure, since the major one backs up the motion. That's the quality of the facial nerves, a lot of double connections, crisscrossing of fibers: back-ups," Gur explains.
Gur and his colleagues directed the minor branch nerve to grow across the upper lip to the paralyzed side of the face, through the tunnel of the nerve taken from the leg.
"The nerve serves as a conduit: a tunnel that is very specific for nerve growth. Nerves grow through myelin sheathes at 1mm a day. In nine months, when I will tap on the cheek, the patient will feel some tingling," he said.
The team then harvested a small muscle from the inner thigh, along with its artery, vein, and its motor nerve. The leg suffers no loss of function, since there are three other stronger muscles that perform the same action.
"We transfer the muscle to the paralyzed face, and through the same set of scars we connect the muscle, align it in the direction of the needed smile, connect the artery to the facial artery, the vein to the facial vein, and connect the nerve branch to the end of the nerve transplanted nine months before," Gur says.
"It takes four to six months for the nerve that had reached that point to grow into the nerve that had grown into muscle. And once it does, a smile on the normal side sends an electrical stimulus to the muscles on the other side to smile. This is high tech, right?" Gur asks with pleasure.
In his 'after' picture, Yoan's smile stretches across his face. "It looks so nice that I'm very proud of it," Gur boasts. "When a kid or adult comes back, and for the first time in their lives they smile, it is a truly emotional time."
He adds: "We operate on two patients a week. I suspect that's because we're the only center in the Middle East that performs this procedure."
That dearth of expertise in microsurgery was the impetus for Gur to focus on that form of surgery.
"When I was a resident here, there was only one microsurgeon in the country: the field was very small. But getting to my sixth year of residency, I realized that only in microsurgery do we have the true solutions. We had great solutions for all sorts of situations in plastic surgery, but were disabled because we had no way to take tissues from one part of the body and move them. I asked the head of the department to send me to specialize in that field."
Gur studied microsurgery in Toronto in 1996, and when he returned to Israel, he began to operate on patients - at the beginning only about four a year.
"Today we do over 120 cases a year, in a way that brings better function and better cosmetics to those patients - with less hospital stay, and less suffering and pain. So there's an amazing role for that field," he said.
Gur's microsurgery center receives patients from Europe and the US, as well, and he's frequently invited to speak for the United States Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery.
"We run a place that's pretty much like the large microsurgery centers in the States, which makes me very proud of it: that is my reference point," he said.
Because of an injury that Gur sustained in the first Lebanon War, he has undergone a below-knee amputation. Although he describes himself as functioning excellently, Gur says: "Many times in my life, and especially after becoming a microsurgeon, I've asked myself: could they have salvaged my limb? There was no microsurgery in those days in the country, so probably they could not have. And I do not ask that with any pain or any frustration: it's not an emotionally intense question - it is more a question of interest. Like, if I was the doctor then, could I do it?
"One day I was asked to give a second opinion in the Rabin Medical Center about whether they should amputate a young guy's limb or if there was an option to salvage. I remember myself walking up the stairs and realizing this was the floor where my leg was amputated. And I'm going to come there, close the circle, and give advice about the same issue: to amputate or not. This was a very strong moment. The head nurse was still the same - 1982 was my injury, and this was 20 years later."
While the past is still present in his mind, Gur is clearly looking to the future regarding the next steps in microsurgery.
Currently, patients who require tissue transplants have two options: to receive parts from a brain-dead body, or to receive an engineered tissue - that is, one created wholly in a lab. Both of these procedures still involve a tremendous amount of risk; but current research may soon make these procedures safer and more common.
"We've decided to establish an applied microsurgery institute," says Gur. "If one day we have a bank of tissues or organs that can be replaced in the human body, it would be an amazing solution for a lot of situations. At the end point, microsurgery will play a significant role in applying those techniques to the human body.
"Once an ear and blood vessels created in the lab can go in, someone will have to connect them to the human body. So I see myself playing a significant role in those two fields, and at the end point, may illuminate some of the major obstacles of human medicine today."
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Facial paralysis treatment hailed
credits:
By Neil Bowdler
BBC science reporter
US surgeons have announced they have succeeded in partially re-animating the faces of patients with severe long-term facial paralysis using a new technique.
The new procedure, which involves the transfer of tendons within the face, has been performed on 15 patients.
Those affected by facial paralysis often lose voluntary movement of muscles on one side of their face.
The Johns Hopkins University surgeons believe their system marks significant progress in treating the condition.
They claim it is simpler, more effective and the surgery less traumatic than traditional methods.
'Immediate effect'
Facial paralysis can have many causes - from trauma caused by an accident to tumours to strokes.
The result is not only deformity, but also often severe speech problems.
When tackled early, various operative techniques such as nerve grafts can now be used to restore movement.
However, surgery has been less successful on those with long-term paralysis, and it is in this area that surgeons at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine say they have made significant progress.
The new surgical technique, called temporalis tendon transfer, sounds gruesome.
A major muscle on the side of the head is severed at the point it joins the jawbone and stretched across the head to attach with mouth muscles, before a relating tendon is then also stretched and reconfigured.
The lead surgeon, Dr Patrick J Byrne, says the results in the 15 patients who have so far undergone the procedure, have been deemed good to excellent, with facial symmetry and speech improved with immediate effect.
"This particular technique address two aspects... the one being improving facial symmetry, the other being the return of a smile," he says.
"When we tighten the muscle around the mouth and along the cheek, we find it helps not only with oral competence - their ability to control their mouth - but it also helps with their speech - they have less of the air escape - they're able to generate better articulation."
Dr Byrne claims the technique is simpler, more effective and the surgery less traumatic than the temporalis sling technique which has been traditionally offered in the past to patients with long-term facial paralysis.
He is also claiming the results of surgery will be easier to predict than with other methods used to date.
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Researchers Discover How Botox Can Alleviate Bell's Palsy
Bell's Palsy which is a form of paralysis caused by a malfunction of a facial nerve can be helped by the injection of botox according to researchers of Melbourne's Brain Research Institute (BRI).
Using state of the art technology to monitor the brain in real time, the scientists have discovered that certain areas of the brain, including damaged areas responsible for facial movements, may reorganize after injections of botox combined with facial exercises. This functional study provides the first insight into the mechanisms of action that allows for the treatment and long recovery from bell's palsy.
Bells palsy is a condition that causes the facial muscles to weaken or become paralyzed. It's caused by trauma to the cranial nerve, and is sometimes associated with pregnancy or a virus infection. However, it is not permanent but can strike anyone at any age. The condition is named after Sir Charles Bell, a Scottish surgeon who first described it 200 years ago.
Bells palsy is more prevelant than generally believed. Worldwide statistics set the incidence at approximately .02% of the population (with geographical variations). In human terms this is 1 in every 5000 people, and 40,000 Americans every year. Older people are more likely to be afflicted, but children are not immune though they tend to recover well from it.
Until recently, its cause was unknown in most cases, but it has now been related to both Lyme disease and Herpes simplex.
Researchers at the Murdoch Research Institute studied 20 sufferers before, immediately after and up to six months following their treatment with botox injections and facial exercise training.
The researchers found that there was a significantly greater reduction in facial drooping accompanied by a greater improvement in control functions for those that had received the botox injections. These changes were associated with changes in brain activity in the affected motor cortex and in some cases brain reorganization to adapt the portion of the brain controlling the facial movements.
This unique project has involved collaboration between three Melbourne research institutes:
-- The Brain Research Institute
-- The La Trobe University, Faculty of Health Sciences
-- The Murdoch Children's Research Institute
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'Lost' star Yunjin Kim suffered from Bell's Palsy
Facial palsy threatened Yunjin Kim's career as an actress but she overcame it to win her starring role on the hit U.S. TV show "Lost," the actress writes in a soon-to-be-released memoir, according to a news report Monday.
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Congressman King has double facial paralysis from Bell's palsy
WASHINGTON n 5th District Rep. Steve King said this morning that a medical condition that’s causing his face to droop hasn’t stopped him from doing the work his western Iowa constituents expect.
King was the guest speaker at a Capitol Hill breakfast that officially kicked off the 53rd annual Washington Conference & Steak Dinner. It was the first time the Republican congressman had addressed metro Sioux City leaders since being diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, a form of paralysis caused by malfunction of the facial nerve.
In his opening remarks, King downplayed his condition.
“Don’t weep for me because I’ve got a poker face over here, and I’ve got a happy face over here," he jokingly told the 65-member delegation as he turned his head from side to side."
Though it’s unusual to have the palsy on both sides, King has described the aliment as very minor. It’s expected to be short-lived.
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U.S. congressman Steve King has Bell's Palsy
Well known U.S. congressman Steve King has been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, which is causing his face to droop. The republican is scaling back his public appearances, but is continuing to work.
Bell's Palsy is a form of paralysis caused by a malfunction of a facial nerve, and is caused by a virus.
The condition, which is affecting both sides of his face, can be short-lived, but it can also last up to a year.
King says he first noticed it about three weeks ago.
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Robert Targon, owner of Bellspalsy.com ARRESTED!
UPDATE: Maryland Board of Physical Therapy Examiners ordered Targon to cease and desist his practice.
BREAKING NEWS: Owner of Bellspalsy.com and Bell's Palsy Research Foundation, arrested for violations related to an alleged fraudulent physical therapy practice, he allegedly practiced physical therapy without a license.
STORY:
Suspected Phony Doctor Arrested In Montgomery County
Man Accused Of Practicing Physical Therapy Without License
MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, Md. -- Police in Montgomery County said they arrested a man on Wednesday and charged him a variety of violations related to a fraudulent physical therapy practice.
Robert Scott Targan, 68, of Montgomery Village, practiced physical therapy without a license, police said. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Board of Physical Therapy tipped police to Targan.
Targan's specialty was intensive facial rehabilitation for people who suffered from syndromes and palsies related to paralyzed facial muscles, police said. Treatments often included placing electrodes on the patient's chest and exposing the patient to electrical stimulation.
In March 2005, Targan treated a woman for facial paralysis, police said, and she paid him hundreds of dollars but requested a refund when she learned the treatment was not up to medical standards.
In May 2006, a woman sought treatment for Bell's palsy from Targan. Police said she believed Targan was a doctor because of the information listed on his Web site about a Bell's palsy Research Foundation and because of licenses for pharmaceuticals and physical therapy on his office walls.
In July 2006, police said Targan treated a woman for Bell's palsy with an electrical muscle stimulation device that was applied for eight hours a night. Targan went to the woman's hotel room to photograph her face after a treatment. In January, the woman learned that her credit card had been charged for a missed appointment even though she had never given Targan the card number.
Detectives have learned that Targan is not a medical doctor and has never had a license to practice physical therapy in Maryland.
Targan is facing the following charges:
* Three counts of felony theft
* Misdemeanor theft
* Theft scheme
* Unauthorized use of a credit card
* Possession of another's credit card number
* Three counts of practicing physical therapy without a license
* Using the title "doctor" to misrepresent oneself as a medical doctor
Police are looking for other people who may have been patients of Targan. They can call police at 301-840-2416 or remain anonymous by calling Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS/8477.
Targan is free on bond.
STORY AND VIDEO
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New Device for Facial Palsy
Teacher is a lesson in persistence
Obtains patent for medical device
Thursday, January 25, 2007
By Judy Laurinatis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An accomplished musician, composer and conductor who is a Saint Vincent College music professor received a patent in November for an invention that has nothing to do with music.
Dr. Albert Tiberio, of New Stanton, invented a device to help people overcome facial paralysis because he wouldn't give up searching to alleviate his own condition. Doctors told him it was permanent and irreversible.
"I thought he's not accepting the reality of the situation," said his wife, Adele.
But Dr. Tiberio proved them wrong. He's proof that, sometimes, something can be done to help the most hopeless of situations.
The story began in 1972, when doctors found tumors on Dr. Tiberio's neck.
They operated, but in order to eradicate all traces of the growths, the surgeon had to cut into a nerve that served the entire right side of his face.
The tumors were benign, and the couple was relieved when no cancer was found. But what remained nearly devastated him.
Half of his face, from his forehead to his chin was paralyzed.
"I play trumpet," he said. That would be out of the question from then on, he found, because his lips barely moved.
He was a teacher, but with his face becoming distorted from the paralysis almost daily, he was having increasing difficulty eating and drinking, let alone talking in front of a classroom.
He had to do something.
Dr. Tiberio checked books out of the University of Pittsburgh's medical library and began reading. He did his research when everyone was asleep so he wouldn't bother anyone and no one would question him.
Mrs. Tiberio told him several times to stop torturing himself with the research, that she loved him with or without the paralysis.
But he was not persuaded.
"When I understand it, I will stop," he told those who questioned him, including his doctors. When he asked them about therapy, they told him none existed. But though they felt exercise wouldn't help, they told him it probably wouldn't hurt, either.
One day something clicked. He understood what was happening to his face and how he might fix it.
The idea for ORBEX was born.
He made a mechanical device that fit into his mouth and put resistance inside his cheeks. His working muscles on the unaffected side of his face created the resistance that exercised the paralyzed side. He exercised with it three times a week, sometimes until the muscles were so energized his face actually turned pink after a session.
Within a month, he was nearly back to normal.
He showed his doctors the change and all were stunned by the recovery. It's unheard of, they told him.
But the excitement soon faded. With his face restored, a career to continue and a family to raise, the device wasn't a priority anymore.
Seven years ago, though, the idea resurfaced. Someone wondered what became of Dr. Tiberio's invention.
He began the voluminous paperwork it takes to apply for, then obtain, a U.S. patent.
Eight weeks ago, it happened.
The mechanical facial exercise system Dr. Tiberio created to help himself became his property officially under law. He's looking to get it manufactured so people who need it will be able to buy it.
Dr. Tiberio is proud of the fact his is a "single-name patent," that will eventually help a lot of people who feel hopeless. He said many patents go to companies where several employees earn them.
Mrs. Tiberio is happy she was wrong when she doubted her husband.
"He's very smart," she said.
But she knew that all along.
FULL ARTICLE
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Bell's palsy usually a mild condition
Although it sounds exotic, Bell's palsy isn't all that rare, occurring in 1 of every 4,000 adults per year. Although sounds very serious, it�s usually a mild condition. Caused by the inflammation of the facial, or seventh, cranial nerve, it begins abruptly with a weakness on one side of the face.
Many patients have pain behind the ear on the affected side of the face. A less common symptom is a diminished sense of taste on half the tongue. Because the eyelid muscles are weak, patients can't blink or close their eyes fully, so eye dryness and irritation can be troublesome. The weakness involves the entire face from head to chin, but it ranges in severity from mild weakness to nearly complete paralysis. About 85 percent of patients recover completely, but improvement can take several months. Facial weakness can sometimes persist. Neurologists are not sure what causes the facial nerve inflammation, but herpes simplex type I is the leading candidate; it's the virus that causes common cold sores, not the infamous type II herpes virus that causes genital infections.
Although most patients recover on their own, medication can improve the outcome. Most neurologists prescribe an antiviral medication such as acyclovir (Zovirax) or famciclovir (Famvir) for five to seven days along with a powerful anti-inflammatory such as prednisone for seven to 10 days. Unlike cold sores, which often recur, Bell's palsy is usually a once-in-a-lifetime event.
President And Fellows Of Harvard College
Star-Telegram.com
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Snails poison diners causing facial paralysis
At least 50 people have been diagnosed with meningitis after eating raw or half-cooked snails in Beijing restaurants, Chinese media reports.
The China Daily said five patients were in a serious condition at different hospitals in the capital.
Many fell ill after eating fushouluo - a snail dish - at restaurants that specialize in Sichuan-style cooking.
The Amazonian snails have been found to harbour parasites that can harm the human nervous system.
This can lead to headaches, facial paralysis and meningitis.
The first case, a 34-year-old man who complained about severe headaches and nausea after eating a dish of cold snail meat, was reported in June.
The man was taken ill after a meal at Beijing's Shuguo Yanyi restaurant.
Symptom delay
Tests on snails taken from the restaurant found several infected with a meningitis-causing parasite called Angiostrongylus cantonensis.
Experts believe the actual number of affected patients might be higher than 50.
It can take a month for symptoms to appear - and so the link between the illness and eating a raw snail may not be obvious.
The same species of Amazonian snails is also being blamed for destroying large areas of farmland in the south of China.
More than 160,000 hectares (400,000 acres) of crops have been destroyed in the Guangxi Zhuang region.
The snail was introduced into China in the 1980s and has since become widespread, breeding very rapidly to infiltrate lakes, brooks and ponds across the country.
Health officials in Beijing have also warned people against eating raw fish, crab and shrimp, although those foods are not directly linked to the current meningitis outbreak.
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Another tick-caused disease: Bell's Palsy
SOUTH KINGSTOWN - When AnnMarie Biegner's "almost" six-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy recently, she said she was shocked to learn her daughter had contracted it through a tick bite.
Bell's Palsy, which causes the facial muscles to weaken or become paralyzed, affects roughly 40,000 people in the United States a year.
The condition is not permanent, and while there are several ways to contract the virus, Bell's Palsy can manifest as a symptom of Lyme disease, said URI expert Dr. Thomas Mather in an interview Monday.
Biegner said her husband pulled a tick off their daughter several weeks ago and watched closely for the "bull's eye" that is a common indicator of Lyme Disease, but that they never spotted "even a little bump," she said.
"Twelve days after the tick bite she complained of a headache," said Biegner, adding that because of the vomiting and fever that followed two days later, she brought her daughter to the pediatrician.
The doctor put her on antibiotics and clinically diagnosed her with Lyme disease. A short time later Biegner and her husband noticed changes in their daughter's facial expressions.
"Her smile was different and she could not blink," said Biegner.
Biegner said her husband was the one who suggested that perhaps their daughter had contracted Bell's Palsy.
"He works with teenagers and remembered a student who had gotten Bell's Palsy from Lyme disease. I had no idea."
The Biegners took their daughter to the emergency room, where they confirmed that her crooked smile was from Bell's Palsy. While they are still waiting for the official blood test results, Biegner's daughter is on antibiotics to help combat the virus.
"I was so darn surprised. I didn't know it could occur through a tick bite."
Mather said it is uncommon for a person to contract Bell's Palsy from Lyme Disease, but that because of southern Rhode Island's explosive tick population, physicians do see more cases of Bell's Palsy in the summer months because of Lyme disease.
"In this part of Rhode Island physicians see a greater summer onset of Bell's Palsy and they suspect it is because of Lyme Disease first," he said. "[Bell's Palsy] is a neurological manifestation that affects the seventh cranial nerve, and Lyme disease causes it only when it has gone into the acute stage."
Besides Lyme disease, Bell's Palsy is also caused by the herpes virus, mumps, and HIV. Tuberculosis can also cause the facial nerve to become inflamed and swell, ultimately resulting in facial paralysis.
"Usually with the appropriate antibiotic therapy it will go away," said Mather.
Biegner said it is just "a waiting game now" for her daughter's symptoms to subside.
"It's definitely not going to be easy when she starts kindergarten," she said. "The way it is now they are going to think she has a speech impediment.
"I want parents to be aware so that they can get help and understand it," said Biegner. "I had no idea. It just plain stinks."
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Lloyd Webber tells of nightmare with Bell's palsy
Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed how he woke up to a nightmare by finding that his face had been paralysed as he slept.
The composer - who has earned a £700 million fortune by penning musicals sich as Evita, Cats and Phantom of the Opera - feared that he had suffered a stroke.
After discovering that one half of his face was frozen by a viral infection, doctors provided him with an emergency antidote.
The father of five is still paralysed under his left eye but counts himself lucky.
"What's incredible is that the night before I'd been perfectly fine," he told The Daily Mirror.
"Luckily, I acted swiftly, called a doctor and was quickly diagnosed.
"It was Bell's palsy, a viral condition which attacks suddenly and leaves your face frozen. I have no idea how I contracted it, but much later discovered that someone I'd been working with had shingles and Bell's Palsy comes from the same virus."
The composer now takes an antidote with him when he travels, in case the condition strikes again.
"It's a temporary condition although I've heard of cases where it lasts two years."
The 58-year-old has also cut wheat and dairy products out of his diet as part of a new health regime which saw him shed two stone in just three-and-a-half weeks.
His new lifesytle began with an operation on his tear ducts almost a year ago.
He added: "I cut down on drinking and obviously when it's warm you just don't want to eat or drink that much.
FULL ARTICLE
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Hi-tech boost for plastic surgery & Bell's palsy
A high-tech face scanner which predicts the effectiveness of plastic surgery has been developed in East Sussex.
The equipment at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead uses 3D imaging to provide accurate measurements of skin contours.
Researchers developed the system by evaluating the laxity and contours of the skin of mothers and daughters.
Charles Nduka, consultant plastic surgeon, said the technology could also be used to treat facial paralysis.
The system, developed in conjunction with Imperial College London, uses six cameras to create images made up of millions of data points.
Mr Nduka said: "Unfortunately before the development of this system there was no way to accurately measure the effectiveness of different treatments or to compare how long the treatments last.
"Many newer techniques have been widely adopted without meaningful evaluation."
It is thought the technology could also be used to guide breast and body contour surgery.
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