Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Lateral pterygoid

A muscle of mastication with two heads in the infratemporal fossa; the only one that pulls the mandible forward and helps to open the mouth.

Key points

• Greater wing of sphenoid + lateral pterygoid plate → neck of mandible + disc.
• Protracts the mandible; helps open the mouth.
• Alternate action → chewing from side to side.
• Its spasm holds a dislocated jaw forward.
• From the first (mandibular) pharyngeal arch → mandibular nerve.
• Skeletal muscle: multinucleated, peripheral nuclei, striated.
• Epimysium → perimysium → endomysium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Origin · Insertion · Action · Nerve supply · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1509–1512, 1669
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 9, PDF pp. 120, 122, 125
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 8, PDF pp. 135–144

More from the head and neck

• Lateral rectus
• Lens
• Levator palpebrae superioris
• Levator veli palatini
• Lips and oral cavity
• Longus colli and longus capitis
• Mandible
• Mandibular nerve
• Masseter
• Maxilla
• Maxillary artery
• Maxillary nerve

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