The muscle that forms the wall of the cheek, pressing it against the teeth to keep food between the chewing surfaces
Buccinator — it stops food from collecting in the cheek.
Anatomy · Muscles
Buccinator
The trumpeter's muscle
Face · muscle of the cheek
The thin, flat muscle that forms the wall of the cheek, running between the upper and lower jaws and the corner of the mouth. It presses the cheek against the teeth to keep food between the molars while chewing, and it is the muscle used to blow out air, as in trumpet-playing, hence the Latin name meaning a trumpeter. It is a muscle of facial expression, supplied by the facial nerve.
How to spot them
- ▸A quadrilateral sheet in the cheek, from the upper and lower molar regions and pterygomandibular raphe to the corner of the mouth
- ▸Pierced by the parotid duct opposite the upper second molar
- ▸Continuous behind, through the pterygomandibular raphe, with the superior constrictor of the pharynx
- ▸Motor nerve is the buccal branch of the facial nerve, while the buccal branch of the mandibular nerve gives only sensation
What to know
Its Latin name means trumpeter, because it is used in blowing wind instruments
Buccinator — from buccina, a trumpet; the trumpeter's muscle.
A duct from the salivary gland in front of the ear pierces it opposite the second upper molar to open into the mouth
Buccinator — the parotid duct.
Attached behind to a fibrous band running from the pterygoid hook to the mandible, which also gives origin to a constrictor of the throat
Buccinator — the pterygomandibular raphe, shared with the superior pharyngeal constrictor.
A nerve of the same regional name supplies the lining of the cheek with sensation, but the movements of the muscle depend on a different cranial nerve
Buccinator — the motor nerve is the facial nerve; the buccal nerve of V3 is sensory.
In a facial palsy food pockets in the cheek and the cheek puffs out on breathing
Buccinator — loss of its tone with facial nerve paralysis.
Fibres that decussate at the corner of the mouth and pass into the lips
Buccinator — its fibres blend with orbicularis oris at the modiolus.
Key ideas
- It is a muscle with a job in eating and a second job in blowing: the cheeks resist the pressure that builds when a trumpeter or glassblower blows, and a person with a weak muscle puffs out the cheek instead.
- Clinicians test it by asking a patient to puff out the cheeks against a finger; in Bell's palsy air escapes and the cheek collapses on the affected side.
Quick-fire facts
- •Origin: outer surfaces of the alveolar processes of the maxilla and mandible opposite the molars, and the pterygomandibular raphe
- •Insertion: blends with orbicularis oris at the corner of the mouth, at the modiolus
- •Action: pulls the cheek in against the teeth, preventing food collecting in the vestibule; helps to expel air from the mouth
- •Nerve supply: buccal branch of the facial nerve (motor); the buccal nerve of the mandibular division of the trigeminal is sensory to the cheek lining
- •Blood supply: the buccal artery, a branch of the maxillary artery
- •The parotid duct pierces the muscle opposite the second upper molar
- •The buccal fat pad lies on the outer surface of the muscle
- •Its name is from the Latin buccinator, a trumpeter (buccina, a trumpet; bucca, the cheek)
- •The pterygomandibular raphe joins it to the superior pharyngeal constrictor, so the two together form one continuous muscular tube from lips to throat
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Sources
- TeachMeAnatomy — Buccinator
- Kenhub — Buccinator muscle