Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Medial pterygoid

A muscle of mastication with two heads on the inner side of the ramus, a mirror of the masseter on the outer side.

Key points

• Maxillary tuberosity + lateral pterygoid plate → medial angle of mandible.
• Nerve from the trunk of V3 (with tensor veli palatini).
• Elevates; assists protrusion.
• 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

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1510–1511, 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

• Medial rectus
• Medulla oblongata
• Midbrain
• Middle cerebral artery
• Muscles of facial expression
• Musculus uvulae
• Mylohyoid
• Nasal bone
• Occipital bone
• Occipital lobe
• Occipitofrontalis
• Oculomotor nerve

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