Crooked Smile After Bichat Pad Removal, Is It Permanent Damage? (photo)

Hello Lelele,

 

Thank you for sharing your photographs that show clearly an injury to right buccal branch of your facial nerve.

 

During the surgery, the buccal nervous branch is spotted and carefully protected to prohibit any facial paresis from taking place. In your case, the buccal branch has been insulted.

 

Recovery could happen as far as the insult is not severe and the growth of the branches is motivated and not delayed.

I encourage you to keep your surgeon in the loop and to seek a well experienced surgeon for consultation as well.

 

Aesthetically, relaxing the buccal muscle on the left side could help and it is achieved by Botox injections until the recovery on the right side takes place.

 

Best of Luck to you.

Dr. Sajjadian

Facial nerve damage is one of the risks of buccal fat removal. If a facial nerve is affected during the procedure it translates in either a temporal or permanent weakness of the facial muscles controlled by the nerve. It might be possible to perform diagnostic studies like Electromiography to determine the state of the facial nerve in question. 

You do have weakness of the right buccal branch of your facial nerve.  Hopefully this will continue to improve with time.  In the short term use of Botox to relax the opposite (left) side can help make your smile more symmetric