Face off

July 1, 2007 12:48 PM

When I speak my mouth goes up on one side more than the other. It annoys me and I sense that I look as if I am sneering when I am not.

Can I do exercises to train it not to?

Would a botox injection once in a while fix it!

posted by A189Nut to Health & Fitness (15 answers total)

Has this always happened? Are you sure others really notice it? I suspect that you are far more aware of it than the folks you are talking to.
posted by thebrokedown at 12:58 PM on July 1, 2007

Response by poster: I don't know, but it does affect my confidence. I see it if I see myself on video or speaking and see in a mirror. Probably terribly vain I know, but if it was fixable, I'd fix it.
posted by A189Nut at 1:34 PM on July 1, 2007

Your question reminded me of how people with Bell's Palsy sometimes smile. (Just a guess, and of course I'm not a doctor.) How recently did you notice this happening?
posted by lemuria at 2:17 PM on July 1, 2007

Response by poster: I was a premature baby and I suspect it has roots in that.
posted by A189Nut at 2:59 PM on July 1, 2007

Go see a speech therapist that specializes in muscular rehab for improving speech. There are various exercises you can do, and they're pretty simple (like holding a pencil up with your lips, that sort of thing). There might be some improvement but it's not likely to make a tremendous difference. The good news is, you'll have a specialist examine your speech and there could be ancillary improvements.

Would a botox injection once in a while fix it

Only if you're interested in literally paralyzing half your face in an attempt to "match" the other half.

Otherwise, just tell people you're a huge fan of Billy Idol.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:44 PM on July 1, 2007

Response by poster: Actually, that's not a bad comparison!
posted by A189Nut at 3:53 PM on July 1, 2007

A189Nut: Not sure how helpful this is, but I was born very prematurely and have something similar. The muscles on one side of my face are weaker than the other, I guess - I played trumpet in high school and remember my embouchure was definitely weaker on the left side than the right. I haven't heard of any solutions to it, unfortunately.
posted by flod logic at 3:57 PM on July 1, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks Flod - that's interesting
posted by A189Nut at 4:28 PM on July 1, 2007

I was also born prematurely and I smile slightly more on one side. It isn't extreme, but when I attended a speech therapist (I have a hearing loss), she said that one side of my face was weaker than the other, and prescribed various exercises to strengthen that side.

For the one-sided smile, she prescribed small resistance exercises in which you (e.g.) smile with the weaker side of the mouth while pushing against that corner of the mouth with a finger, creating resistance.
posted by bad grammar at 5:18 PM on July 1, 2007

Another preemie/lopsided smile data point. It makes me like more like Robert de Niro than Billy Idol though. I understand that you may find it annoying, but I'm told it's actually kinda cute. YMMV and so on.
posted by YamwotIam at 7:00 PM on July 1, 2007

God I love this forum. Another preemie here with the same condition. Never had any idea until now that it had a physiological basis, and maybe the headaches I used to get on that side of my head were related. Have considered looking into plastic surgery and didn't know there might be an easier, low tech way to help ameliorate the situation.

Oh, and there's no Billy Idol fan around here.
posted by fuse theorem at 9:30 PM on July 1, 2007

I always thought Alicia Silverstone did that a bit. She had it noticeably less in "Clueless" though (than when I've seen her speak spontaneously), so I always figured that they had her go through some therapy during the filming of the movie.
posted by web-goddess at 10:58 PM on July 1, 2007

If you "fix" this thing you don't like about yourself, are you sure you will like yourself? Will you just find something new to fixate about? It seems like you're better off learning to love yourself for who you are than recreationally injecting yourself with one of the most poisonous naturally occurring substances in the world.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 11:17 PM on July 1, 2007

I wasn't born prematurely, but I always did this... until I had orthodontic work done. After I'd had my braces for just a few months, my mouth quit lifting up on the side when I spoke and it hasn't been a problem since.

Maybe you should ask your dentist if your teeth are at all misaligned?
posted by chickletworks at 1:02 AM on July 2, 2007

For all those who do this, I'll bet it's the left-hand side that's more actively smiling. That's because roughly speaking, emotions are controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain. Babies typically have very crooked smiles, but this behavior goes away as they age, and symmetry develops. The connection to being born prematurely is conceivable. If you want to dig into this deeper, take a look at the following paper:

Contralateral smile and laughter, but no mirth, induced by electrical stimulation of the cingulate cortex.
Epilepsia. 2006 Feb;47(2):440-3.
posted by lunchbox at 4:34 PM on July 2, 2007