I got Bell's Palsy in 2002. Bell's Palsy is a virus that compresses the nerve that controls facial movement. Most people recover from it completely. I didn’t. My mouth is still funky. To top it off, I developed Synkinesis.

Synkinesis is the mis-wiring of nerves after trauma. It causes involuntary muscular movements accompanying voluntary movements. For example, voluntary smiling will cause an involuntary contraction of the eye muscles causing the eye to squint when smiling. I got the squint, bad. I’ve learned to live with it, but it’s annoying and uncomfortable. And I'll have it for the rest of my life. But through a lot of physical therapy and Botox treatments, it’s a little more under control.

I decided it would be interesting to show you the before and after of the Synkinesis treatment I have done every few months. My doctor, Dr. Grigoriy Mashkevich, who is a double board certified plastic surgeon and ENT, is an expert in facial paralysis and was nice enough to appear here to show you what happens.

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