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Concept
Mandible
Summary
In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone of the skull (discounting the ossicles of the middle ear). It is connected to the temporal bones by the temporomandibular joints.
The bone is formed in the fetus from a fusion of the left and right mandibular prominences, and the point where these sides join, the mandibular symphysis, is still visible as a faint ridge in the midline. Like other symphyses in the body, this is a midline articulation where the bones are joined by fibrocartilage, but this articulation fuses together in early childhood.
The word mandible derives from the Latin word mandibula 'jawbone' (literally, 'one used for chewing'), from mandere 'to chew' and -bula (instrumental suffix).
The mandible consists of:
The body, found at the front
A ramus on the left and the right, the rami rise up from the body of the mandible and meet with the body at the angle of the mandible or the gonial angle.
The body of the mandible is curved, and the front part gives structure to the chin. It has two surfaces and two borders. From the outside, the mandible is marked in the midline by a faint ridge, indicating the mandibular symphysis, the line of junction of the two halves of the mandible, which fuse at about one year of age. This ridge divides below and encloses a triangular eminence, the mental protuberance (the chin), the base of which is depressed in the center but raised on both sides to form the mental tubercle. Just above this, on both sides, the mentalis muscles attach to a depression called the incisive fossa. Below the second premolar tooth, on both sides, midway between the upper and lower borders of the body, are the mental foramen, for the passage of the mental vessels and nerve. Running backward and upward from each mental tubercle is a faint ridge, the oblique line, which is continuous with the anterior border of the ramus.
Official source
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