PURPOSE: to assess the use of the digital caliper in the measurement of the facial mimic movements in different moments of the speech therapy. METHOD: prospective longitudinal study, with 20 subjects between 7 and 70 years-old, 13 females and 7 males, all diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, attended in the Facial Paralysis Ambulatory, of the otorhinolaryngology subject of a University Public Hospital. The use of a Digimess 100,174BL digital measuring caliper was adopted for this study. The measurements were carried out in the facial mimic movement, always starting from a fixed point to a mobile point in the structures: the tragus and the labial commissure, external corner of the eye and labial commissure and also internal corner of the eye and the nasal ala. All measurements were carried out both prior and after the treatment. The quantification of the incompetence of the movement was measured by simple percentage. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied to check for possible differences between both moments considered (with and without movements), as the study variables. RESULTS: the measurements had a statistically significant result (p<0.05) in all the proposed measured structures (tragus and labial commissure, external corner of the eye and labial commissure, and internal corner of the eye and nasal ala), showing that there are possibilities of measuring of movement and absence of movement using a digital caliper. CONCLUSION: the caliper has demonstrated to be a useful device which has permitted to objectively compare the evolution of the rehabilitation of facial mimic in Bell’s Palsy in the sample studied here.
Facial Paralysis; Speech; Language; Hearing Sciences; Measures
