Problems with eating and drinking in patients with unilateral peripheral facial paralysis.

Patients with facial paralysis not only suffer from asymmetry of the face, but also from problems with eating and drinking. To demonstrate that these patients have many problems with activities such as eating and drinking, we examined 17 outpatients with a unilateral peripheral facial paralysis for the presence of problems in these functions. To collect data, all patients completed a questionnaire concerning the problems they had directly following onset of the paralysis and at the moment of this study.