Howdy y’all,
My mother has been experiencing an as-yet-undiagnosed bilateral facial nueropathy for 3 to 4 years. Part of her compensations for the slackend, numb feeling of her face around her mouth and nose, is a tightening of the facial muslces that she can control in order to keep her lips closed and ‘normal’ in appearance. She has also been noticing a signifigant shifting of her teeth during this time as well. So my questione are…
(In your collective “IANA…” way, please give me your thoughts)
Could her teeth be moving in response to the constant pressure from her facial muscles on them?
Could her teeth be moving in response to the effects of time and age on a pre-existing mis-alignment that was corrected during 4 years between the ages of 13 and 17? She has not worn her retainer since college. She is now 56.
Is it more likely possible that the the numbess could be an effect of the teeth moving, or vice versa? Are they more than likely related to a common root cause, or are they coincidental effects of unrelated issues?
What are some of the other possible explanations? Where can I find some reading materials on the subject?
Looks like you’ve temporarily stumped the panel. 
Not to worry, I’ll bump this from Page 2 for ya, hopefully somebody will know.
Thanks…I know it is a shot in the dark, but that’s more than what she’s gotten after spinal taps, MRI’s, CT scans, and a fleet of extremely powerful drugs “just in case this half-baked diagnosis is actually the problem…see if [insert drug here] will help”.
I can only answer the first question. Yes, constant facial pressure could be (and probably is) causing the teeth to shift. No clues on facial neuropathy, but the facial muscles do effect the position of the teeth, as does the tongue.
Thanks for the info. She has mentioned the possibility to various professionals but they’ve been pretty dismissive of it.
She has to work fairly hard to keep what she considers a “normal” appearance of her mouth and lips. 4 years of that much constant pressure against her teeth…it makes sense to think of the force being signifigant enough to cause some shifting.
Since she’s been seeing so many new doctors since the condition began, I think that the lack of comparison to how she felt/spoke/appeared (prior to the neuropathy) degrades their abilities to gauge her condition, at least somewhat.