Andrew Joseph, M.D. and Shannon Joseph, M.D., M.Sc., examine Latisa Robinson in the facial nerve clinic at Kellogg.
Michigan Medicine Establishes Multidisciplinary Facial Nerve Clinic
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More than 20 Michigan Medicine experts from gether to create the Michigan Medicine Multidisciplinary Facial Nerve Clinic (MFC). The MFC is one of only a few programs in the world to offer fully integrated multispecialty care for facial nerve conditions in one convenient location — providing the most advanced and evidenced-based medical and
neck tumors, trauma, surgery and
WITHOUT TIMELY AND
Facial paralysis can be devastating for someone’s functional,
FACIAL NERVE DISORDERS CAN SUFFER
aesthetic and emotional well-
FROM SIGNIFICANT OPHTHALMIC CONSEQUENCES, INCLUDING
retraining therapy for rehabilitation.
LOSS OF VISION.
— Shannon Joseph, M.D., M.Sc.
The facial nerve controls muscles
used in everyday functions such as eating, speaking, smiling, blinking and closing the eyes. Damage to the facial nerve can result in paralysis of the affected muscles, paralytic ectropion
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congenital abnormalities.
INTEGRATED CARE, PATIENTS WITH
surgical therapy, as well as facial
Hunt syndrome, brain tumors, head and
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9 different subspecialties have joined to-
paralysis include stroke, Lyme disease, Ramsay
being, says Jennifer Kim, M.D., an otolaryngologist specializing in facial plastic surgery and a leader of the MFC. “Daily activities like eating and speaking are negatively impacted.” “Without timely and integrated care, patients with facial nerve disorders
can suffer from significant ophthalmic
consequences,” says Shannon Joseph, M.D.,
M.Sc., an ophthalmologist specializing in oculoplastic
(the turning out of the eyelid), or synkinesis (uncoordinated or
surgery who led the initiative to establish the MFC with
unintentional facial movements). The most common cause of
otolaryngologists Dr. Kim and Dr. Andrew Joseph. For example,
facial paralysis is Bell’s Palsy. Other underlying causes of facial
when patients are unable to fully close their eyelids due to facial
