We always take smiling and all other facial emotions for
granted. When we see someone sad we can almost respond immediately "turn
that frown upside down". Has it ever happened to you that you are smiling
or laughing too much that your face cheeks start to feel sore? The outcomes to
a smile are beneficial to all of us because in this way we form close friendships,
relationships and social response. Imagine when someone tells you, “You have a
beautiful smile” we respond in happiness because they are complimenting us. When
we smile we can show what emotion we are feeling, but what about those who
can't show their emotions for other viewers? I had never heard of the rare
condition; Mobius syndrome. Someone who has Mobius syndrome is unable to move
their facial muscles to make a smile. Since two of his/her cranial nerves are
either missing or they are not fully formed this causes facial muscles to be paralyzed.
As I was saying, unable to smile actually makes it hard on people to understand
what the other person is feeling because of their lack of emotions. Let’s
imagine for a second that we smile at a person with Mobius syndrome while
shopping at a store and as a response we always expect a smile back as a social
smile. Now, when we encounter someone with this condition they would not able
to respond to us even if they did want to smile we can only see their lack of
facial expression. Having Mobius syndrome does not mean that they don’t
experience happiness it just means they are unable to show it. This condition
is present at birth. Perhaps inability to suck, crossed eyes and excessive
drooling in a newborn aside from difficulty nursing are all possible
characteristics to look at in a newborn baby. There is no prenatal test or cure for Mobius
syndrome but there is a Facial Reanimation Program that treats all aspects of
facial nerve paralysis and partial paralysis. Speech or psychical therapies are
useful to improve their gross motor skills and coordination, also plastic
surgery helps to provide artificial smiles.
Let's look to this Elisa's story which is another example that rare conditions can't stop us from going on in life and being happy.
After surgery, Elisa now feels a more "natural" way of smiling and showing her emotions.
Everyone smile! Let's be thankful that we are very blessed for being able to show our emotions. We can never take anything for granted.
Yea this is definitely something else and its pretty sad. I can't imagine not being able to smile. Trust me i have tried not smiling for a whole day and boy is that really difficult. Whats funny is that i had a professor who i took for two semester my sophomore and still remembers me as Michelle Garcia, the girl who is always smiling in class. His class was entertaining, i couldn't help myself. He told me that whenever he walked into class he would ALWAYS see me smiling. He never knew if i ever had a bad day because i just never seemed to show it. And let me tell you, i had a bunch of bad days with this class because i was always soo frustrated that i just could not get an A in an exam. Always falling short by a couple of points -.-. He said that seeing me always encouraged him to be excited to teach. I just took this as a compliment. For BOTH semesters let me just say helped me out and gave me an A in the course. (I think he knew that i worked REALLY hard in the class, either that or i just magically did well in my finals. I never found out). I knew he also took into consideration if you went up to the board to explain any problems to class or the amount of time you clocked at the LAC. Either way he helped me out and i am sooooo thankful because due my smile i dont think he'll ever forget me. Imagine i had this disorder? not only would i have probably not gotten my As but i probably wouldnt have been able to brightens someone day with just a smile. Don't get me wrong, i believe that people with this disorder are precious just like everyone else and have a heart filled with love.Its just sad that they can't send out a gesture that we all seem so easily to show. A smile says alot! Im thanking that there are surgeries out that can help with this. I wonder though what goes wrong exactly during prenatal growth that allows this disorder to occur. Since its genetics, do you think that if doctors can detect this in time that they could possibly knockout the gene responsible for this and prevent the disorder from either worsening or occuring?
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