Neurotization Preferences in Smile Reanimation: A Discrete Choice Experiment

What Is This Study About?

This discrete-choice experiment asked community volunteers to weigh nerve-source trade-offs in smile reanimation: a reliable bite-driven smile from the masseteric nerve versus a less reliable but potentially spontaneous smile from a cross-face nerve graft.

Key Findings

• Chance of success was the strongest decision factor, followed by smile type (bite-driven versus spontaneous)
• Most respondents still preferred a cross-face strategy for the chance of a spontaneous smile, unless its success rate fell below about 67 percent
• Dual innervation (masseter plus cross-face graft) is discussed as a way to pursue some spontaneity with a lower failure risk than a cross-face graft alone

What This Means for Patients

These findings support individualized counseling: masseteric transfer is the more reliable voluntary smile, while a cross-face graft or dual innervation is chosen when the chance of an emotionally timed smile is worth a higher risk of failure.