Mandibular nerve injury during anterior cervical diskectomy

[Kathy-R__0]

  I had a c-spine (c-4/5) anterior diskectomy with fusion on 4/10/97
  for a hernaited disk.I noticed afterwards that the right (my right)
  side of my mouth did not move as well as the left.I talked out of the
  left side of my mouth and had a crooked smile.Two months later my
  nerosurgeon referred me to a maxilloFacial surgeon.Was told that the
  mandibular nerve was injured during surgery.PT and medication have
  helped some,but still have problem almost one year later.Does this
  condition have a name ? Can I expect a full recovery? Are there other
  things I can do to help myself? How could this have happened? The
  doctors are very vague and not much help.
  Many thanks.

[CCF neurology MD MM]

_
The mandibular nerve is a branch iof the facial nerve which controls the
muscles of the face, this is like a partial Bell's palsy or Facial palsy.
There is a time window within which the majority of recovery takes place,
since this happened a year ago, it is probable that most of the recovery
that can take place has already occurred, and that you will always have some
residual weakness.
The only thing that will help,this is physical therapy , there are no
specific therapies unfortunately to make nerves regenerate faster.
As how exactly this occurred, this would depend on the precise techniques
performed at the time of surgery. I would suggest that you ask this
specifically of the surgeon who performed the surgery, as any
suggestions from someone not present during the procedure would be pure speculation.