Bell’s Palsy Facial Exercise Series – Part 5 – The Exercises
Before reading this post please read the following in order:
- Bell’s Palsy Facial Exercise Series – Part 1 – Introduction
- Bell’s Palsy Facial Exercise Series – Part 2 – The Warm Up
- Bell’s Palsy Facial Exercise Series – Part 3 – The Mental Aspect
- Bell’s Palsy Facial Exercise Series – Part 4 – The Physical Aspect
- Bell’s Palsy Facial Exercise Series – Part 5 – The Exercises
Bell’s Palsy Facial Exercise Series – Part 5 – The Exercises
Now we are all suitably warmed up…Let us begin.
The first things we are going to do may just look like warming everything up again but there is far more in it than that.
We are awakening all of our facial muscles and the facial nerve that moves them and doing so in the appropriate way to further their recovery. It also feels very pleasant to do.
Begin with you face relaxed
You can see how my face looks pretty normal but to the discerning eye my mouth is dragged down on my right hand side giving me a characterful sinister, even authoritative look – “Hollywood hard man” parts, here we come !!!
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With each of the massaging exercises I have given the facial muscle and the facial nerve that you are activating. I repeated the diagrams from “Medical Stuff” at the end of this chapter.
For now let’s just do the exercises and get into the habit of them. Once you can do them without the pictures in front of you then look at the facial diagrams whilst you do them for greater understanding.
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FOREHEAD
Minimum Time: 2 minutes
FACIAL MUSCLE: Frontalis
FACIAL NERVE: Temporal
In a ZigZag fashion, up and down, rub across your forehead so that the skin actually moves.
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EYE AREA
Minimum Time: 1 minute
FACIAL MUSCLE: Corrugator and Orbicularis Oculi
FACIAL NERVE: Temporal
Using one finger to gently close your eyelid, use another to steady or gently lift your eyebrow at the same time using a scissor action.
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EYE AREA
Minimum Time: 2 minutes
FACIAL MUSCLE: Frontalis and Corrugator and Orbicularis Oculi
FACIAL NERVE: Temporal and Zygomatic
Starting at the bridge of your nose move your fingers outwards, pushing up along your eyebrow and then bring them down and underneath your eye returning to your nose. I have pressed too hard on the photographs. Make those areas move but do not press too hard underneath the eye.
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CHEEK AREA
Minimum Time: 2 minutes
FACIAL MUSCLE: Levator Labii and Orbicularis Oris and Masseter and Buccinator and Risoris
FACIAL NERVE: Zygomatic and Buccal and Mandibular
With flat palms rub the skin down towards the mouth, ending at the corners of the mouth
NOTE
Although the temptation is to massage the muscles upwards in the direction we desire them to go, the opposite its more beneficial, to massage them towards the mouth in the direction the signals will actually move.
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CHEEK AREA
Minimum Time: 2 minutes
FACIAL MUSCLE: Masseter and Buccinator and Risoris and Orbicularis Oris
FACIAL NERVE: Buccal
With clean fingers obviously, one inside the mouth, one outside, gently give as much of that cheek and lip area a massage.
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NECK AREA
Minimum Time: 2 minutes
FACIAL MUSCLE: It will help to warm up and loosen this muscle area
FACIAL NERVE: Cervical
Rub your neck with your palms first downwards towards your chest and then upwards to wards your chin.
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CHIN AREA
Minimum Time: 2 minutes
FACIAL MUSCLE: Various along this facial nerve route
FACIAL NERVE: Mandibular
GENTLY grab the skin along your lower jaw as if softly pinching. Continue this from one ear lobe to the other.
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NOSE AREA
Minimum Time: 1 minutes
FACIAL MUSCLE: Levator Labii and Nasalis
FACIAL NERVE: Temporal and Zygomatic
Rub your fingers from the bridge of your nose, down the part where your nose meets your cheeks towards your mouth area.
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BIG SMILES – OPEN AND CLOSED
No more than 10 posed smiles a day I was told. Natural expression via interaction will give us the best results – A humbling and yet confidence building experience.
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YAWNING TO POUTING IN ONE SLOW MOVEMENT (10 times)
SLOWLY form a full yawn.
Make a note of tense muscles elsewhere and concentrate on relaxing them at the same time – do this several times.
SLOWLY GO FROM THE YAWN (ABOVE) INTO THE LIP PUCKER (BELOW) ALL IN ONE SLOW AND INTENTIONAL MOVEMENT.
Notice again any tense muscles – You can see from mine that my eye area tightens up and makes me squint – I can feel it in my cheeks. So concentrate on relaxing them – You wont at first but you MUST PERSEVERE – this is not a race it is a slow endurance mountain climb – we will build Rome brick by brick – a brick a day.
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EYE AREA (10 times)
- SquintGently close your eyes as fully as possible
Tightly close your eyes as fully as possible
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NOTE: If you have Bell’s Phenomenon, where your eyeball moves upwards when you attempt to close that eyelid, do not worry. This is extremely common (thus the name) and actually of benefit to you, as it is trying to protect the eye that will not presently close.
To exercise this, try to concentrate on looking downward towards the floor as you practice closing your eyelid. (Don’t worry if you cannot do it, it just works another muscle. Do not strain for this or any of the exercises). This Bell’s phenomenon will go.
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EYEBROWS (10 times)
- Raise both eyebrowsRaise each eyebrow individually (if you never could, then don’t worry)
Frown with your forehead
Remember how many wrinkles you used to have and notice as they start to come back during your recovery. At no other time in life would this probably be a joyous occasion.
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MOUTH MIRRORING (10 times)
Raise the affected side of your smile without raising the “normal” side. Bring the “normal side” to be symmetrical with the affected side’s smile.
Practice this several times. Obviously as your affected side heals you will be producing bigger symmetrical smiles. For now just produce whatever symmetrical smile you can.
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NOSE (10 times)
Flare nostrils
Wrinkle nose in a
“snarl-like” manner
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BLOWING CHEEKS (10 times in between laughing)
Try and laugh at yourself as I did taking these photographs. It is an impossible exercise to complete but one which will help to activate and strengthen the movement for the future.
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CHIN AND NECK AREA (10 times)
Wrinkle your chin and drag each side of your mouth downwards
Squeeze your lips really tight together
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WIGGLE YOUR EARS (10 times)
- Even if you never could, it is still exercising a different muscle by trying)
This is me wiggling my
ears I Promise.
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The quick and “do-anywhere” ALPHABET workout
Go through the alphabet and pronounce your best and most rounded A, B, C and so on, saying them all slowly and deliberately.
Particularly practice the letters B, C, F, G, J, M, O, P, Q, U, V, W and Y (you will be able to speak perfectly when you have recovered and it is the shape of the letters that is the exercise, not how they sound)
It is a cruel irony that this condition had to be called Bell’s Palsy when B and P are 2 of the hardest letters to pronounce.
There you have it !!!
Pat yourself on the back. You have just done a complete workout and will soon have the fittest, healthiest and most chiselled smile upon God’s good earth.
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