The advancement on face transplant has been amazing to watch. Especially since the largely publicized face transplant for the Mississippi Firefighter two years ago (Patrick Hardison). Does anyone here know how long it takes for the face to "settle in" where the donor face and patient face start fusing? Also I noticed that the eye movements on all these transplants have a distinctive unusual movement to it. Is this a physical limitation where doctors/surgeons cannot operate too closely in the eye area due to the risk of damaaging the eye? Or is does it take a couple years for the muscles near the eye to adapt to the new face?
To echo what another poster already said, it's all about the nerves.
Several years ago I tried to kill myself by cutting my neck. I sliced below the jaw-line from my ear to my chin. I still have "numb areas" after 3+ years, and there aren't really any muscles there that need to be controlled. It's very easy to imagine not ever getting full facial muscle control back in her situation.
I still have areas of both numbness and hypersensitivity on my face from nerve damage that occurred when my wisdom teeth were removed decades ago. Both the damage and the current effects were and remain minor, but there's a noticeable improvement now vs. 10 years ago vs. 20 years ago.
