Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 (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 pterygospinous, which stretches between the spina angularis and the lateral pterygoid plate, superiorly attached to the root of the lateral pterygoid plate anteriorly; the interclinoid ligament, a band of dura mater that connects the anterior clinoid process and posterior clinoid process of the sphenoid bone;
The foramen ovale is behind and lateral to this; it transmits the mandibular nerve, the accessory meningeal artery, and sometimes the lesser petrosal nerve. The sphenoidal emissary foramen is occasionally present; it is a small aperture medial to the foramen ovale, opposite the root of the pterygoid process; it opens below near the scaphoid ...
The lateral and medial pterygoid plates (of the pterygoid process of the sphenoid bone) diverge behind and enclose between them a V-shaped fossa, the pterygoid fossa. This fossa faces posteriorly, and contains the medial pterygoid muscle and the tensor veli palatini muscle.
The lateral surfaces of the body are united with the greater wings of the sphenoid and the medial pterygoid plates.. Above the attachment of each greater wing is a broad groove, curved something like the italic letter f; it lodges the internal carotid artery and the cavernous sinus, and is named the carotid sulcus.
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 pyramidal process of the palatine bone projects backward and lateralward from the junction of the horizontal and vertical parts, and is received into the angular interval between the lower extremities of the pterygoid plates. On its posterior surface is a smooth, grooved, triangular area, limited on either side by a rough articular furrow.