Botox restores smiles in kids with facial paralysis

Botox can help restore smiles in kids with facial paralysis resulting from trauma or tumour, a new study has found.
Injecting botulinum toxin A commercially known as Botox appears to be a safe procedure to improve smiles by restoring lip symmetry in children with facial paralysis, a condition they can be born with or acquire because of trauma or tumour, researchers said.
Botulinum toxin A is an effective treatment in adults to achieve facial symmetry after facial paralysis but few investigators have described its use in children, according to the study published by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
Severe cases of facial paralysis can require surgical reconstruction, whereas milder cases can be treated with muscle transfer and other techniques, or patients can be managed nonsurgically with physiotherapy and rehabilitation strategies.

When treated with botulinum toxin A, the injection is given so as to weaken the strong muscles on the nonparalysed side of the face.
Siba Haykal, of the University of Toronto, Canada, and coauthors reviewed medical records and identified 18 children with facial paralysis treated with botulinum toxin A injections from 2004 through 2012.

The authors used facial analysis software to measure lower lip symmetry in patients' smiling photographs before and after treatment.
They did not observe complications in patients who received botulinum toxin A and facial symmetry improved.
"We have shown that botulinum toxin A significantly improves symmetry of the lower lip, is safe and has a potential for restoration of permanent symmetry," the study concluded.