Contents:
- Medical Video: Introduction to Larynx, Pharynx, and Airway Anatomy
- What is the anatomy of the human mouth like?
- Structure of the front oral cavity
- Deep oral structure
- Cheek
Medical Video: Introduction to Larynx, Pharynx, and Airway Anatomy
The saying goes, your mouth is your dayma. Without the mouth, humans cannot produce sound to communicate. However, mouth function is not just to talk. The mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract of food. The mouth accepts and then pulverizes and digests the incoming food before finally being completely digested by the stomach. Have you really understood the anatomical structure of your own mouth? Come on, see in the following explanation.
What is the anatomy of the human mouth like?
Maybe you can only see the mouth from the front, such as the lips, teeth and gums, and the tongue. However, the anatomy of the human mouth is not that simple.
The anatomy of the mouth is divided into two parts, namely the front (anterior) and back (posterior) structures which become the meeting point between the front oral cavity and the esophagus as a food pathway. Here are more details
Structure of the front oral cavity
The front oral cavity is the appearance of the mouth that you can see with your naked eye when reflecting. The shape resembles a horseshoe. This cavity includes the lips (front and inner side), inner cheeks, gums and teeth, tongue, palate, tonsils (tonsils), and uvula (small flesh that hangs on the soft palate of the mouth.
The front cavity of the mouth can move up and down, right-left, and close and open with the help of the mandibular jaw and the muscles of facial expression, especially the orbicularis oris muscle.
Deep oral structure
The inner oral cavity is a room covered by the arches of the teeth and the upper and lower jaws. Most of these parts are filled with the tongue and salivary glands.
Besides being located on the tongue, palate, lips and cheeks, humans have three pairs of major salivary glands that open to the front of the mouth. The parotid salivary gland is the largest of the three, located between the ear and the mandibular branch.
The palate, both hard and soft, is also part of the structure of the inner oral cavity. The hard palate is made of bone plates that separate the nasal cavity and the oral cavity. While the soft palate consists of muscles as a valve to close the oropharyngeal isofus and open to separate the nasopharynx (back of the nasal cavity and behind the palate) from the oropharynx (parts of the digestive tract and respiratory tract).
In this inner cavity, there are two main muscles, the diaphragm and geniohyoid muscles which functions to pull the larynx forward when ingesting food.
Cheek
The size of each cheek is different depending on the composition of fat in it. Apart from that, the cheek-forming muscle remains the same, the buccinator muscle. This muscle is covered by the mucous membrane of the mouth, that's why your inner cheeks are always slippery and wet.
When chewing food, the cheek muscles work to hold the food that is being torn to remain in the dental arch.
