Brand-new Xmas smile for Chanel
● After two years of being unable to smile or close her right eye, Chanel de Wet has her groove back. The 22-year-old Johannesburg woman can now smile and blink both her eyes and is looking forward to joining in family photo sessions this Christmas.
It’s all thanks to a ground-breaking facial reanimation operation a year ago which set out to end the facial paralysis she suffered in surgery to excise a tumour.
“This is going to be the best Christmas so far as I will be able to take photos and share my memories with confidence,” accounts clerk De Wet told the Sunday Times.
In September last year, a team of surgeons at Mediclinic Louis Leipoldt in Cape Town harvested a nerve from her leg and transplanted it into her face, where they connected it to healthy nerves.
They hoped it would grow and restore full functioning in the five branches of the facial nerve, allowing De Wet to smile again, move her eyebrows and close her right eye.
Plastic surgeon Dr Frank Graewe, who worked with head and neck surgeon Justus Apffelstaedt and ear, nose and throat surgeon Louis Hofmeyer on the seven-hour procedure, said until recently patients like De Wet had to seek treatment overseas. Her progress gave hope to others “who had the impression that nothing can be done to improve their condition”.
“She has gained some control and has to learn to move and control [her muscles]. The nerve fibres are reattaching and regenerating and the connections are random, meaning the nerve that supplied one facial muscle might now supply another one, so rehabilitation and relearning is important,” he said.
De Wet said her family had noticed an improvement in her facial expressions about two months ago. “It was my parents who informed me that I am slowly starting to get my smile back, and that was when I really started taking note of the changes that were happening. I can now feel that there is movement on the right side of my face, which used to feel as if it was hanging.”
Graewe said nonsurgical procedures could improve De Wet’s facial balance, but for the moment she is enjoying her newly gained confidence.
“I feel amazing and I have been more confident when taking photos … even showing my teeth when I smile, which I never used to do before,” De Wet said.