Dooley Noted: 9/30/2014
Yesterday, I helped students dissect four faces.
This is one of the most challenging dissections, due to the sheer thinness of this musculature and the superficial location of the nerve that innervates them.
These muscles and this nerve are important! They help keep food in our mouths and keep our eyes moistened.
Plus, facial expression is a huge part of human interaction.
You’ve seen the strange-looking, largely expressionless face of someone who’s shot Botox into their facial lines.
I find this popular fad fascinating for two reasons.
1. Botulinum toxin is one of the deadliest substances known to man – and people are willingly injecting it into their faces.
2. To show expression is to be communicative to your surroundings.
I remember being pretty irritated when my high school photographer airbrushed my forehead wrinkles out of my senior pictures.
Those wrinkles are formed by my willingness to communicate with my surroundings as the person I’ve become.
Talk to anyone who’s experienced Bell’s Palsy or stroke affecting the face, and they’ll note how much they want facial expression back.
So, I hope you create some wrinkles today. They show you’ve lived and communicated who you are to your environment.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley