Press Kit
My background is multidisciplinary, including more than 20 years of the technical experience as engineer and more than 10 years of the clinical experience with critically ill patients in the surgical unit of the busy hospitals as RN. I am a member of Dysphagia Research Society. My name is Ina; I am inventor of FACEXER – personal exerciser for head, face and neck muscle strengthening.
The personal exerciser I developed (FACEXER) adds a resistance component to the oral-motor exercises, making them more effective. Resistance provided by FACEXER during exercising, helps to increase lingual muscle strength faster, which improves the timing of the swallowing components. In fact, FACEXER stimulates and strengthening all our muscles above the shoulders.
FACEXER is a simple fitness device. FACEXER has been developed for the general healthy population in order to inform them about alterations in the status of the head and neck muscles strength during healthy aging and highlights the need to stimulate and strengthen our functional reserve, which includes the ability to chew, breathe, talk and swallow.
FacExer is an inexpensive simple device similar to stretch bands which have been used widely by physical therapists for body muscle rehabilitation. (www.facexer.com)
I was able to manufacture the first batch of exercisers using principal materials from an American medical company with the view of utilizing FACEXER for rehabilitation purposes as outlined above. For example, my clients with history of stroke have developed tongue symmetry, better saliva retention and speech patterns in just 2 month of exercising with FACEXER.
I am very keen to utilize FacExer for medical purposes, as I witnessed so much stress during my medical career. I am looking for ways to reach people who need FACEXER. I offered to donate FACEXERs to Dysphagia Research Society and hope to hear from them soon.
One Nurse’s Story – from the idea to the reality.
At the beginning this immigrant from radiocontaminated region of Belarus near Chernobyl was “an insurance agent” of the Life Insurance Company . It was just “a job” to support her children and herself, survive. She was walking from the door to door trying to sell insurances, collecting payments. Very soon she realised how many people behind these doors was also surviving. An elderly lady asked her for a glass of water – her door was wide open, she was very lonely and very week, she was no longer afraid of strangers and was in needed of help… A venerable gentleman was so glad to talk to anybody, even to “an insurance agent”, he was listening to her presentation several times and asked so many questions not related to insurance, and then he told her his own amazing life story… Every day this “ insurance agent” witnessed anxiety, illnesses and loneliness…
The “insurance agent” became “a nurse assistant “of the Home Health Agency. Long hours of hard work with paralyzed patients were very rewarding emotionally. The “ nurse assistant” became “a nursing student” and then –RN in a busy hospital. Working with patients recovering after stroke, she noticed great benefits of physical therapy used to strengthen the arms, hands, feet and legs with exercises using simple stretch bands.
More problematic was to implement exercises for patients with difficulties of chewing and swallowing which made eating, drinking and taking medicine difficult. Many stroke survivors experience dysphagia or trouble swallowing . A speech therapist evaluates patient’s swallowing abilities and signs of aspiration and then wrights an order NPO – Nothing By Mouth - if patient has failed to swallow properly. There is no time for exercising program for dysphagia in hospital. Without eating and drinking for days, patients are not getting strong enough to exercise body muscles. Often we can see physical decline and failure to thrive.
“ The idea” came to this nurse long time ago. …She remembered her grandmother’s suffering from a stroke. Grandma wasn’t able to chew and this nurse – a teenager by this time – filled a small muslin bag with pureed food and gave to her Grandma to suck. It was a good way to feed Grandma and also to exercise her mouth and throat muscles.
Many years later on the basis of her life experience and her Master of Science Degree this RN’s idea materialized into developing an invention. Many years of research resulted with a patent for a “personal exerciser for head and neck muscle strengthening”.
But this is only the beginning of her journey towards success. She started to manufacture exerciser – FacExer - in Florida, founding the company FacExer LLC. Materials used in FacExer are made in USA by companies which provide custom solutions for medical, and food & beverage applications and FDA compliant.
There are a lot of regulations and policies to bring any device to the medical field. It is a very long process. Fortunately, there is an application for FacExer exerciser which could be applied for every one of us: FacExer gives you the unique possibility to perform resistance training muscles of the head, face and neck . FacExer is a gym for small muscles above the shoulders. Exercising with FacExer promotes blood flow to your face and neck muscles hence to skin, which makes your skin heather, firmer and radiant.
We know that arming yourself with information is just as important as having the proper equipment, which is why we have created the Blog on our website facexer.com. There you will find the latest information and workout tips to increase your knowledge and help you achieve your fitness goals.