Lifestyle

'I CAN'T EVEN SMILE'

Bristol Palin Shares Update on Year-Long Battle With Facial Disfigurement

“I feel like I should wear an eyepatch.”

Roosa Rahkonen

Editorial Intern, The Looker

Published

Mar 10, 2026, 6:10 PM EDT

Updated

Mar 10, 2026, 6:18 PM EDT

Updated Mar 10, 2026, 6:18 PM EDT

Published Mar 10, 2026, 6:10 PM EDT

Over a year after she first revealed her struggle with facial paralysis, Bristol Palin is seeking help from a plastic surgeon.

On March 9, the eldest child of Alaska’s ninth governor, Sarah Palin, took to her Instagram stories to share an update about her ongoing battle with lingering Bell’s palsy symptoms.

“I’m going to have a consultation today with a plastic surgeon in Austin,” the 35-year-old said as she applied makeup in her car. “I’ve read that she specializes in facial paralysis type stuff, so we’ll see what she says.”

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Bristol Palin Gives Update on Struggle With Facial Paralysis

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Bell’s palsy is a condition in which the muscles on one side of the face temporarily weaken. It is typically short-term, with patients often making full recoveries within six months. In rare cases, however, it can be a lifelong condition.

Pointing to the left side of her face in the video, Palin asked for “prayers, because maybe [the doctor] could help with this eye.”

“When I smile or when I’m expressive, it closes,” she explained. “I don’t really care about my crooked mouth, but my eye… so embarrassing to me. I feel like I should wear an eyepatch or something. It looks crazy, and I just feel like I can’t even smile because it just closes.”

“She could do some Botox, or maybe there’s some options with surgery,” the Teen Mom OG alum said prior to her appointment.

“Maybe she can help with...the overall symmetry, [let’s] see what she has to say,” she said, again pointing to her left eye.

“I got to see this specialist [in Alaska] that does all of my inner blocks to help with my face, so everything was really good,” she said, noting that she just returned from a trip to her home state.

Two hours after the initial stories went up, Palin posted an update, saying the appointment went well and that she’d update them later.

Palin first spoke about her facial paralysis in January 2025. She posted a video on Instagram in which her left side barely moved. Access Hollywood posted a screen recording of the original video.

“I woke up nine days ago with a weird little sensation in my face,” she said.

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“My mouth was pulling this way, and it just felt like a little off. So I went and looked in the mirror, and I’m like, ‘wow, this is looking a little weird,’” Palin said.

Adding, “Within a couple hours, the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed. Couldn’t really blink my eye, definitely had no movement on the side of my face. So crazy.”

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Her doctors thought it was “just a case of Bell’s palsy, maybe brought on by stress or lack of sleep.”

At the time, the former reality star said she had tried steroids and acupuncture, and was starting to gain sensation back in her face.

However, as of January this year, she said on Instagram that her face was still “not looking great.”

“Could be worse, could be better. At least I’ve got cute sunglasses,” she joked to her followers.

Roosa Rahkonen

Editorial Intern, The Looker

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