Conclusion
Facial nerve palsy is an important consequence of neck dissection. Different palsies have different prognoses, and this is important for patient counselling in terms of long-term prognosis. Despite the differentiation being made academically over 40 years ago, there is a paucity in the literature describing the characteristics particularly in association  with neck dissections, where both MMN and platysmal function are inherently at risk.
Here we present a simple method of distinguishing the two palsies, along with the anatomical relevance, so that appropriate reassurance, therapy and management can be undertaken.
Acknowledgment: Thank you to Sciepro/Science Photo Library for underlay picture on figure one.
Data availability statement : Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.