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Portrait of Parotid gland

Anatomy · Head, neck & teeth

Parotid gland

The largest salivary gland

Face · in front of and below the ear

The largest of the salivary glands, a wedge-shaped, serous gland lying on the side of the face in front of and below the ear, over the ramus of the mandible and the masseter muscle. It is enclosed in a tough capsule, and its duct opens into the mouth opposite the upper second molar. The facial nerve runs through it, dividing it into superficial and deep parts, and it is the gland that swells in mumps.

How to spot them

  • ▸A wedge of tissue sitting in front of the ear, over the angle of the jaw and the masseter
  • ▸About 25 g; produces watery, enzyme-rich (serous) saliva
  • ▸The facial nerve passes through it and fans out into five branches
  • ▸Its duct crosses the masseter, pierces the buccinator and opens opposite the upper second molar

What to know

A nerve of facial expression runs through the substance of this gland, dividing it into superficial and deep lobes

The parotid gland — the facial nerve (CN VII) passes through it, dividing into five branches

Its duct, discovered by a Danish anatomist in 1660, opens on a small papilla opposite the second upper molar (1660)

The parotid duct is Stensen's duct, after Niels Stensen

A viral infection makes it swell painfully, so that the angle of the jaw is lost and the earlobe is pushed outwards

Mumps (epidemic parotitis)

After surgery on it, eating produces sweating and flushing of the skin over the cheek, from misdirected nerve fibres

Frey's syndrome (gustatory sweating) after parotidectomy, described by Lucja Frey in 1923

The commonest tumour of the salivary glands is a benign 'mixed' growth in this gland

Pleomorphic adenoma of the parotid

The external carotid artery and the retromandibular vein pass through its substance

Structures traversing the parotid gland: facial nerve, external carotid artery and retromandibular vein

Named from the Greek for 'beside the ear'

Parotid: para, beside; ous, otos, ear

Key ideas

  • The gland is wrapped in a tough fascia continuous with the deep cervical fascia, so swelling has nowhere to go: that is why mumps and parotid infections are so painful.
  • The three structures running through it, from lateral to deep, are the facial nerve, the retromandibular vein and the external carotid artery.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Weighs about 25 g (roughly 14–28 g); the largest of the three paired major salivary glands, with the submandibular and sublingual
  • •Secretes serous, amylase-rich saliva; secretomotor supply is from the glossopharyngeal nerve via the lesser petrosal nerve and otic ganglion, reaching the gland in the auriculotemporal nerve
  • •Stensen's duct is about 5 cm long and opens opposite the crown of the upper second molar
  • •The facial nerve divides into temporal, zygomatic, buccal, marginal mandibular and cervical branches within the gland, the pattern called the pes anserinus
  • •The gland lies in the retromandibular fossa, between the mandibular ramus and the mastoid process
  • •Mumps is caused by a paramyxovirus; MMR vaccination has made it rare in the UK
  • •Warthin's tumour is a benign parotid tumour, commoner in male smokers
  • •Parotidectomy risks damaging the facial nerve, with a risk of facial weakness

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Sources