5 muscles affected:
1. Frontalis
- Action: Elevates eyebrows, wrinkles forehead, and pulls the scalp forward.
2. Orbicularis oculi
- Action: Closes eyelids, compresses lacrimal sac
3. Orbicularis oris
- Action: Closes mouth, compresses and protrudes lips
4. Buccinator
- Action: Compresses cheek against molar teeth
5. Platysma muscles
- Action: pulling down the mandible, pulling the corners of the lips to the side and down, forms wrinkles in the neck with age.
Mechanism of muscle weakness: The nerve for facial muscles pass through a narrow bone. With AM’s condition, that nerve gets inflamed. This causes paralysis or weakness of the face.
Other symptoms are:
- Headaches
- Drooling
- Dry eye
- Tearing
- Hypersensitivity to sound
- Loss of taste on the front 2/3 of the tongue
- Pain behind ear
- Difficulty eating and drinking