Facial Nerve Electrode Stimulation for Muscle Volume Restoration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aging facial muscles lead to loss of muscle tone, volume, and connective tissue, causing social and professional challenges, and existing treatments like exercises and medications are insufficient, often resulting in invasive surgeries with unsatisfactory outcomes for dysfunctional facial muscles due to nerve damage or paralysis.
Innovation Solution
Electrode stimulation of the facial nerve using a plurality of contacts to improve and maintain muscle volume and strength, with methods involving central nerve stimulation, identification of specific nerve branches, and use of EMG and acceleration sensors to determine optimal stimulation parameters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If exercises and medications are used to treat aging facial muscles, then treatment is non-invasive, but the improvement is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces electrical stimulation as an intermediary mechanism between non-invasive treatment and muscle improvement. The stimulation device acts as a mediator that delivers controlled electrical signals to facial muscles through the facial nerve, bridging the gap between simple exercises/medications and more invasive surgical interventions, thereby achieving sufficient treatment effectiveness while maintaining non-invasiveness.
2Reliability
If invasive surgery is performed to improve facial appearance, then significant improvement can be achieved, but the treatment is irreversible and has unsatisfactory outcomes for dysfunctional muscles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical surgical intervention with electrical stimulation. Instead of physically cutting, lifting, or restructuring facial tissues through surgery, the invention uses electrical signals delivered via the facial nerve to stimulate muscle contraction and improve facial appearance. This substitution eliminates the invasiveness and irreversibility of surgery while maintaining treatment effectiveness.
3Reliability
If nerve reconstruction is performed for facial paresis, then nerve continuity is restored, but axonal sprouting causes synkinesis and autoparalytic syndrome
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by delivering electrical stimulation to specific, targeted muscle groups through selectively activated nerve branches. Rather than relying on random axonal sprouting that causes synkinesis, the stimulation is precisely localized to the desired muscle, ensuring that only the intended muscle receives the neural signal. This selective localization prevents the harmful cross-activation characteristic of synkinesis and autoparalytic syndrome while restoring nerve function.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Restores and maintains muscle tone, volume, and connective tissue, improving facial appearance and quality of life by selectively activating desired facial muscles, offering a non-invasive alternative to surgery.
Implementation Method 1
providing an electrode having a plurality of contacts, stimulating a central part of a facial nerve with the plurality of contacts
Implementation Method 2
use of EMG and acceleration sensors to determine optimal stimulation parameters
Implementation Method 3
use of EMG and acceleration sensors to determine optimal stimulation parameters
Data Source
AI summary
A method for stimulating facial nerves in a subject includes providing an electrode having a plurality of contacts, stimulating a central part of a facial nerve with the plurality of contacts in order to improve at least some muscle volume and/or strength in a facial region, and stimulating one or more of the plurality of contacts in order to maintain the muscle volume and/or strength in a desired facial muscle. Another method for stimulating facial nerves in a subject includes providing an electrode having a plurality of contacts in an ear of the subject, stimulating one or more of the plurality of contacts separately in order to determine which contacts activate which facial muscles, identifying one or more contacts from the plurality of contacts that cause one or more nerve branches to activate a desired facial muscle, and selecting the identified contacts to stimulate the one or more nerve branches.