After Having a stroke some people are known to develop a facial droop on one side of their face?

Question

Is this a permanent condition or a temporary one. Is sugery reqiured to return the person face back to it's original form? Thanks to all who answered

Answer 1

Hi. I'm a speech-language pathologist with 12 years of experience working in hospitals with adult neurogenic population. After stroke, it is common for people to have facial droop ,as you called it, on one side of their face. The techincal term for this is dysarthria and it is caused by damage in the brain on one side (generally the opposite side of where you see the droop). This is very similar to when you see someone paralyzed on one side of their body after stroke.

Anyway, dysarthria is caused by damage to the areas of the brain that control motor movement of the facial muscles. It sometimes co-occurs with swallowing problems, dysphagia. A speech pathologist is the proper person to treat this disorder. She will evaluate the strength and range of motion remaining in all of the oral structures and design a program to help strengthen and restore tone to the affected areas. It is likely to see improvement over time but the person may not reach 100%. Often ther do so well, though, that someone who didn't know them before the stroke, won't be able to tell.

If the dysarthria is also causing trouble with speech intelligibility then, the speech pathologist might teach overarticulation, a technique designed to exaggerate the pronunciation of all speech sounds to approximate more normal speech.

One side note, someone else mentioned... Bell's Palsy can also cause one-sided facial droop. This is thought to be caused by an infection of the facial nerve (a cranial nerve). Treatment for this is different and there are some experiemental treatments using electrical stimulation.

Hope this helped.

Answer 2

There are a couple of reasons for facial droop after a stroke. Depending on the location of the stroke (either cortical, subcortical, or brainstem), and the type (hemorrage, ischemia, or thrombosis), prognosis varies. Muscular function returns best after hemorrage (if the hemorrage doesn't kill you) or thrombosis. Subcortical and brainstem strokes usually mean better recovery of facial droop, if the lesion isn't large.
Speech pathologists encounter these patients every day and know how to treat the different types of stroke. Exercises to increase lip closure and sucking behavior will increase the likelihood of recovery. Usually, though, it is only partial recovery.
No, they don't operate in cases like this. The reason for the facial droop is nerve damage, and surgery wouldn't help.

Answer 3

Facial Droop

Answer 4

It depends... a person may present with a droop and it may go away or improve after the stroke..but if it is a moderate-severe stroke it usually is permanent. If the stroke is 'bells palsy' then in over 90% of cases it will disappear within a year of incident. I have never heard of surgery performed to restore face.

Answer 5

A speech therapist can also help a stroke victim regain strength and motor control of the muscles around the lips. Not only is lip-closure and clear word formation worked on but so is normal biting, chewing and swallowing skills. One such exercise is to blow bubbles using a plastic wand. Another, is to say the nursery rhyme, Baa Baa Black Sheep over and over. And, yet another, is to drink a thick shake using a straw.

Answer 6

I am no doctor, but as I understand it, it depends on the severity of brain damage. The droop can sometimes be improved over time as the brain "rewires" itself. I have no idea what sort of therapy can help promote this. I just know that my grandfather had a stroke, and he drooped for a while, but it gradually got better.

Answer 7

Facial paralysis is a very common after-effect of a stroke. I've never heard of any type of surgery that reverses paraysis.

Answer 8

Sometimes it may go away with physical therapy, but usually it's not a droop it's called paralazation. And it isn't something to kid about!

Answer 9

1

Answer 10

its caused because when you have a stroke its basically a blood clot that affects the brain. when this occurs blood cant flow properly. the muscles in the face basically get paralyzed. no it cant be fixed by surgery.