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The lateral pterygoid muscle (or external pterygoid muscle) is a muscle of mastication. It has two heads. It lies superior to the medial pterygoid muscle. It is supplied by pterygoid branches of the maxillary artery, and the lateral pterygoid nerve (from the mandibular nerve, CN V 3). It depresses and protrudes the mandible. When each muscle ...
the lateral pterygoid muscle superiorly; the inferior border of the mandible (lingual surface) inferiorly; the medial pterygoid muscle medially (the space is superficial to medial pterygoid) the ascending ramus of the mandible laterally (the space is deep to the ramus of the mandible)
Muscles of the head, face, and neck. The muscles that power the jaw movements during chewing are known as the muscles of mastication or masticatory muscles, and are functionally classified as: [1] Jaw elevators: the masseter, temporalis, medial pterygoid and superior belly of the lateral pterygoid
The four classical muscles of mastication elevate the mandible (closing the jaw) and move it forward/backward and laterally, facilitating biting and chewing. Other muscles are responsible for opening the jaw, namely the geniohyoid, mylohyoid, and digastric muscles (the lateral pterygoid may play a role).
The lateral pterygoid plate of the sphenoid (or lateral lamina of pterygoid process) is broad, thin, and everted and forms the lateral part of a horseshoe like process that extends from the inferior aspect of the sphenoid bone, and serves as the origin of the lateral pterygoid muscle, which functions in allowing the mandible to move in a lateral and medial direction, or from side-to-side.
The lateral pterygoid muscle, auriculotemporal nerve, and the maxillary artery and maxillary vein are situated laterally to the SML (the vessels and nerve coursing betwixt the SML, and the neck of the mandibular condyle [1] [3]). [1] The chorda tympani nerve is situated medially to the SML [1] near its upper end. [citation needed]
The nerve passes deep to the neck of the mandible [1] - between it and the sphenomandibular ligament [2]: 364 - andthen courses deep to the lateral pterygoid muscle. [1] It issues parotid branches and then turns superiorly, posterior to its head and moving anteriorly, gives off anterior branches to the auricle.
The mandible is moved primarily by the four muscles of mastication: the masseter, medial pterygoid, lateral pterygoid and the temporalis. These four muscles, all innervated by V 3, or the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve, work in different groups to move the mandible in different directions. Contraction of the lateral pterygoid acts ...