Bristol Palin turns to extreme treatment in bid to ‘smile again’ after losing muscle movement in face

Bristol Palin shared that she is ready to try a drastic treatment amid her battle with facial paralysis, as she gave fans another health update on Monday.

The 34-year-old daughter of former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin revealed she still has ‘no muscle movement’ in her face, seven weeks after her health issue began.

In a car video shared to her Instagram Stories, Bristol removed her sunglasses and demonstrated her ongoing facial paralysis by attempting, unsuccessfully, to close both eyes.

‘We are day 49. Still no muscle movement. I cannot believe it’s been seven weeks since this craziness started,’ she said.

‘I’ve done everything. Tried everything. Taken everything and nothing has improved it,’ the former Dancing With the Stars contestant added.

‘I think I might go try this crazy nerve block. It’s like a nerve block somewhere in your neck. I’ve heard a couple success stories on it. I’m willing to try anything because I’m getting very impatient.’

‘Seven weeks. Day 49. Hopefully something changes soon,’ she added.

Bristol followed it up with a snap of herself and a friend smiling, and wrote, ‘wow I can’t wait to be able to smile again.’

Nerve block treatments can help alleviate pain and address issues like facial muscle spasms and dystonia associated with facial paralysis, according to the National Library of Medicine. 

Last month, Bristol posted another update and revealed she is uncertain about what the ‘future holds’ as she described how she had tried ‘everything imaginable’ to resolve the issue.

‘If I just keep my mouth shut, it’s not as noticeable,’ she began in video posted to her Instagram Stories. ‘We are day 35, officially five weeks since the left side of my face went paralyzed.

‘I still have no muscle movement on the left side. I don’t really feel much. I’ve done everything imaginable to resolve this. I’m not sure what else I should do. But, I’ve spent the last 35 days, doing something every single day to try to fix this, and nothing has helped so far.

‘So I’m not sure what the future holds. But this is the update. Day 35. Still no muscle movement,’ Bristol said.

The treatments Bristol had been attempting included acupuncture.

She shared a selfie taken during one of the sessions, which showed an array of needles all over her face.

‘I have been going 4 times/week,’ she wrote in the photo.

Bristol in January said on the social media platform that doctors speculated she might have Bell’s palsy – which is temporary paralysis or weakness of the facial muscles – after undergoing a series of tests following symptoms.

‘I woke up nine days ago with a little weird sensation in my face – my mouth was pulling [to the left], and it just felt a little off. Within a couple of hours, the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed,’ she said at the time.

She said she couldn’t blink her eye and ‘definitely had no movement on the side of [her] face.’

A number of notable names have past received diagnoses of Bell’s palsy, including George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, The Bachelorette alum Emily Maynard Johnson and iconic pro wrestling announcer Jim Ross.

Bristol is mother to three children: son Tripp, 16, with ex Levi Johnston, 34; and daughters Sailor Grace, nine, and Atlee Bay, seven, with ex-husband Dakota Meyer, 36.

Bristol was thrust into the national limelight in 2008 amid her mother’s vice presidential campaign alongside then Republican presidential candidate, late Arizona Sen. John McCain.

She appeared at the Republican National Convention in September 2008 alongside Johnston, as her pregnancy with Tripp when she was 17 made headlines, amid her mother’s swift rise to political prominence as McCain’s running mate.

Beyond the campaign, her relationship with Johnston remained in the public eye amid a pair of engagements before they eventually split for good.

Bristol has been keeping fans updated on her facial paralysis over social media and previously dismissed claims it was caused by the COVID vaccine, Botox, and lip fillers.

‘I’ve seen so much speculation about what this is caused by,’ she said last month.

‘So many people are trying to blame the Covid vaccine,’ Bristol said. ‘I never had the Covid vaccine,’ perhaps in support of her mother, who was vehemently against it during the pandemic.

She also dismissed suggestions it was caused by Botox or lip fillers.

‘I haven’t had filler in years. I had lip filler years ago,’ the former Dancing with the Stars contestant admitted, as she pointed to her mouth.

‘I haven’t done that in a long time too, so, I don’t think it’s caused by those.’

She then went to on to explain that ‘Bell’s Palsy can be set off by stress. I’m stressed, I probably don’t sleep that great, so it’s definitely eye opening for that aspect, but it’s super simple, that’s likely what it’s caused by.’