Oral muscle strength exercise allows you to recover your loss of facial expression from facial palsy

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It was nine years ago during summer that my facial palsy suddenly became numb. I was talking to my friend when it happened and the right side of my face suddenly drooped completely, unable to move. My guess was that maybe the air conditioning was blowing towards the right side of my face when I was sleeping the night before. Plus, on the way to my friend's place on the train, there was air conditioning that caused all of this.

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The right side of my face drooped completely and I was unable to eat smoothly and unclear when speaking. Still afraid and disappointed, apart from treating me with steroids, the physician also gave me anti-anxiety and sleeping pills. I spent every day eating pills and sleeping.

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However, the numbness did not become better and about one month later, I gave up on medicine treatment. Afterwards, I tried acupuncture, chi gong, osteopathy, anion treatment, cupping and so on. I tried all the treatment methods.

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However, there was no treatment method with an effect that I was satisfied with. In the eight years, acupuncture was the only treatment that I did not stop but it had very minimal effect. In the end, the doctor told me that the most I can recover to is to my current condition.

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After four or five years, the condition of my numbness started to become worse. Originally, it was only the right side of my face that drooped and was unable to move. Suddenly, my face also started to wither, my eyes became smaller and my nose and mouth also slanted to the side. In this condition, I became very insecure and scared, and did not like to go out even more. Other than that, I also became sick more easily, my blood pressure became too low, I had heart problems and my skin also became rough.

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I had thought about undertaking an operation to remove the nerve of my armpit to my face as the last method. However, I had heard that after the surgery, some people end up with unnatural movements and painful circumstances, which left me undecided. When I decided to undertake the operation, I saw a message about Patakara in the newspaper. Oral muscle strength exercise is something like an exercise device that you insert between your teeth and lips, and then close your lips to exercise the muscles around the mouth to enhance natural treatment strength. I immediately told Dr. Akihiro who had been guiding me about my situation and Dr. Akihiro told me confidently that I can be treated.

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For someone who has been diagnosed continuously for nine years that their nerve is dead and untreatable, apart from being shocked, I had hope again and was so happy that I decided to use it on the spot.

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There are three resistance stages to the oral muscle strength device. My lip closing strength is of a child ranging from 5-6 N. At first, I was even unable to close to the weakest.

Through hard practise and pulling of the handle, I can close my lips. After having used the oral muscle strength device for a week, I did not have to wear the retainer that I have worn for the past eight years while sleeping.

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The wearing of the retainer is to minimise the moving of my teeth on the numb side. If I do not wear the retainer while sleeping, it will cause the opening and closing of my teeth to become worse and pain in my teeth in one night. The next day, my neck will become swollen, I will get a headache, feel like vomiting and so on. It feels very uncomfortable to wear a retainer while sleeping, my mouth is unable to close and I can only use my mouth to breathe. These problems prompted me to decide not to wear the retainer and as a result, other than not feeling so much pain like before, I will be in a much better mood the next morning and I thought to myself that I probably do not need to wear the retainer anymore.

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Although my teeth and face had not completely recovered to being balanced, I believed that within half a year, I can recover to a point where I can meet up with people and not feel awkward.

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In about two weeks, my teeth started to move. I felt the distance between my upper front teeth on the right and left side became smaller, and my lower front teeth started to adjust instantly. At the same time, the withered part of my face loosened bit by bit, my eyes opened, my mouth opened and my nose gradually became straight.