Mandible

Study entry

Parts

U-shaped bone, the lower facial skeleton and the only mobile bone of the skull: body (horizontal, with the alveolar part of the lower teeth) and two rami (vertical), each ending in the coronoid process (in front) and the condylar process, with head and neck (behind), separated by the mandibular notch. The two halves fuse at the symphysis in childhood.

Joints

Temporomandibular (head of the mandible with the mandibular fossa and the articular tubercle of the temporal bone, with an articular disc between them).

Clinical

For the inferior alveolar nerve block, the needle aims at the mandibular foramen; in the approach from the outside, it enters through the mandibular notch to the infratemporal fossa.

Source: cap. 8, «Cráneo» y «Articulación temporomandibular» y tabla 8-11

Other structures in this region

• Thyroid cartilage
• Cricoid cartilage
• Arytenoid, corniculate and cuneiform cartilages
• Epiglottis (epiglottic cartilage)
• Membranes and ligaments of the larynx (conus elasticus and quadrangular membrane)
• Frontal bone
• Parietal bone
• Occipital bone