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In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin mandibula, 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lower – and typically more mobile – component of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone is the skull's only movable, posable bone, sharing joints with the cranium's temporal bones.
The facial skeleton comprises the facial bones that may attach to build a portion of the skull. [1] The remainder of the skull is the neurocranium.. In human anatomy and development, the facial skeleton is sometimes called the membranous viscerocranium, which comprises the mandible and dermatocranial elements that are not part of the braincase.
It is composed of 270 bones at the time of birth, [2] but later decreases to 206: 80 bones in the axial skeleton and 126 bones in the appendicular skeleton. 172 of 206 bones are part of a pair and the remaining 34 are unpaired. [3] Many small accessory bones, such as sesamoid bones, are not included in this.
The function of the sphenomandibular ligament is to limit distension of the mandible in an inferior direction. It is slack when the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is in closed position; it is taut when the condyle of the mandible is situated anterior to the temporomandibular ligament. [2]
Fractures of the mandible are common. However, coronoid process fractures are very rare. [1] Isolated fractures of the coronoid process caused by direct trauma are rare, as it is anatomically protected by the complex zygomatic arch/ temporo-zygomatic bone and their associated muscles.
In vertebrates, the maxilla (pl.: maxillae / m æ k ˈ s ɪ l iː /) [2] is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. [3] [4] The two maxillary bones are fused at the intermaxillary suture, forming the ...
The stylomandibular ligament is the thickened posterior portion of the investing cervical fascia around the neck. It extends from near the apex of the styloid process of the temporal bone to the angle and posterior border of the angle of the mandible, between the masseter muscle and medial pterygoid muscle.
In human anatomy, the mandibular canal is a canal within the mandible that contains the inferior alveolar nerve, inferior alveolar artery, and inferior alveolar vein. It runs obliquely downward and forward in the ramus, and then horizontally forward in the body, where it is placed under the alveoli and communicates with them by small openings.