Welcome to the EasyMed channel where medical topics are made easy. In this video we're going to talk about the different facial bones and important features you should know about each one. The skull has a total of 22 bones. 8 of those are cranial bones that make up the cranium around the brain and 14 of those are facial bones that make up the face.
In a previous video we discussed the cranial bones. Now we're going to focus on the facial bones. There are 14 facial bones and I came up with a simple mnemonic that will help you remember the names of each one.
The mnemonic is my mandible chews nine very large zucchini pizzas. And this will help you remember the following names. Maxilla, mandible, concha, nasal, vomer, lacrimal, zygomatic, and palatine.
So my mandible chews nine very large zucchini pizzas. Wherever there's a two, that means there's two of those bones or a pair of them in the face. We're going to be talking about each of these bones in the order of the mnemonic, starting with the maxilla.
The maxilla is one of several facial bones in which there's a pair of them in the face. You can see them shown in purple on the images off to the right. I've got a few more views to show so you can better understand the orientation of these bones. In that top row we have a couple sagittal views and in the bottom row we have a frontal view, one looking up at the skull, and a posterior view.
As mentioned before there are two maxillary bones and they're actually fused together. You can see that they form all or most of the front of the face, the nasal passageway, the heart palate. and they form part of the orbits or eye sockets.
There are a couple features to know about the maxillary bones. The first one is called the infraorbital foramen. There's one on each side below the orbit and that's why it gets its name infraorbital foramen.
They are basically holes in the maxillary bones that allow for passage of the infraorbital artery, vein, and nerve. It's actually a location point where nerve blocks can be performed to alleviate some dental pain to the top row of the teeth. The next feature requires us to look at the roof of the mouth. So we're going to look up at the skull. It's another foramen and it's called the incisive foramen.
It's easy to remember because it sits right behind the incisors or the front teeth. It's an opening in the hard palate of the maxillary bones that allows for passage of the sphenopalatine artery and nasopalatine nerves. You may also see it referred to as the anterior palatine foramen.
The final feature to talk about with the maxilla is the maxillary sinuses. The skull is made up of different sinuses and we're going to go in much more detail about this in a future video. but one of the main pairs of sinuses are the maxillary sinuses and they're located within the maxillary bones as the name suggests. As we go through the mnemonic the next bone is the mandible. It's shown in the turquoise green color in the images off to the right.
Here are a few more images and you can see that the mandible is the jaw. You can also appreciate how the mandible articulates with the temporal bone as we discussed in the previous cranial bone video. There are a couple features to know about the mandible and we're going to walk through those now. The first feature is an opening in the mandible called the mental foramen.
There's one of these located on either side of the mandible and it's a passageway for the terminal branches of the inferior alveolar nerve and blood vessels. It's another location point for a nerve block that can provide anesthesia to the jaw and lower teeth. The next feature is the coronoid process.
It's an anterior projection off the ramus and it provides an attachment point for the temporal muscle. Moving to the posterior aspect of the ramus, we have another projection called the condylar process. This is how the mandible articulates with the temporal bones to allow for the jaw to open and close. We discussed in the previous cranial bone video that one of the features of the temporal bones was what was called the mandibular fossa.
This was a depression within the temporal bone that allowed the mandible to articulate with it. Specifically, it's the condylar processes of the mandible that articulate with the mandibular fossa of the temporal bones. The final feature of the mandible requires us to look at the inside of the bone. It's called the mandibular foramen and it's another opening within the mandible and there's one located on either side.
The mandibular foramen provides a passage point for the inferior alveolar nerve artery and vein. Again, it's another location point where nerve block can be performed. The next pair of bones are the conchae, specifically the inferior nasal conchae.
They're shown in maroon in that bottom right image. Let's look at a couple sagittal views because the nasal conchae are located within the nose. There are three sets of nasal conchae, superior, middle, and inferior. The superior middle nasal conchae are actually formed from the ethmoid bone, which is one of the cranial bones that we talked about in the cranial bone video. The inferior nasal conchae are separate facial bones, and there's one located on each side of the nose.
As we continue through the mnemonic, the next pair of bones are the nasal bones, and they're shown in beige on the right. There aren't too many features with the nasal bones. Just remember that the nose is primarily cartilage, and the only boning part is where the nasal bones are, which is right at the bridge of the nose. The next bone is an unpaired facial bone called the vomer bone and it's shown in the middle of the nose in the bottom right image.
We again have to look at a sagittal view because it sits right in that midline of the nose. So the vomer bone actually forms the inferior portion of the nasal septum. The nasal septum is what divides the right and left nasal airway or nostrils. The vomer bone articulates with a couple of the facial bones including the maxillary bones and palatine bones and it also articulates with a couple of the cranial bones including the ethmoid bone and sphenoid bone. As we continue through the mnemonic, the next pair of facial bones are the lacrimal bones.
You can see one of them shown in pink in the lateral view of the skull. The lacrimal bones are the smallest bones in the skull. They make up part of the medial aspect of each orbit. The word lacrima means tears in Latin and this will help you remember what the lacrimal bones do.
The shape of the lacrimal bones form the canals for the lacrimal apparatus, which is involved in tear production and drainage. You can see a few pictures of the lacrimal bones so you can appreciate how small they are and where they're located. The next pair of facial bones are the zygomatic bones and you can see them shown in orange on the right.
Here are a few more pictures of the zygomatic bones. You can see that it forms part of each orbit and you can also see that it forms the cheekbone that you can feel on the side of your cheek. We're going to talk more about that cheekbone because it ties in with one of the cranial bones that we learned about in a previous video.
So here we have a lateral view of the skull and you can see one of the zygomatic bones. One of the features of the zygomatic bone is what's called the temporal process. It's a projection that comes off of the posterior aspect of the zygomatic bone.
The temporal process joins with one of the cranial bones called the temporal bone. Specifically, it joins with the zygomatic process of the temporal bone. We learned about this previously in the cranial bone video, so I encourage you to go check that out if you haven't already. Together, the zygomatic process of the temporal bone and the temporal process of the zygomatic bone join to form the zygomatic arch, which is the cheekbone you can feel on the side of your face. The last pair of facial bones are the palatine bones.
They're deeper in the skull so you can't see them well in the images on the right, so we're going to zoom in on a better picture. You can see the palatine bones shown in blue. The palatine bones actually help form three different cavities including the orbits, the nasal cavity, and oral cavity. Specifically they help form part of the floor of the orbits, the lateral walls in the floor of the nasal cavity, and the roof of the oral cavity. You can see in the image on the left that the palatine bones are more involved in forming the posterior aspect of the roof of the mouth.
Remember that it's the maxillary bones that form the anterior aspect of the roof of the mouth. Here's another image of the palatine bones. Again you can appreciate that it helps form part of the orbits, the nasal cavity, and oral cavity.
Hopefully this gave you a good overview of the facial bones. If you found the video useful please hit the like button or comment down below before you go. If you're new to the channel make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss out on future videos that make medical topics easy.
You can find all the notes for this video in the EasyMed blog linked down below in the description. Thanks for watching and I hope you check out future videos.