Full Transcript

·YouTLDR

Face LO - Muscles of Facial Expression

22:34EnglishTranscribed Jul 23, 2026
0:00

hi let's talk about the muscles of facial  expression in this video we'll discuss the  

0:05

various groups of facial muscles how they're  distributed about the face their functions and  

0:10

their innovations so the superficial muscles  of the head are divided into two groups the  

0:18

epicranial muscles are those muscles which are  upon the cranium and the cranial facial muscles  

0:25

are those muscles of the cranium but associated  with the face the cranial facial muscles can  

0:34

be grouped according to the orifice that they  control so for instance surrounding the orbit  

0:42

and palpebral fissures are the circum orbital and  palpebral muscles surrounding the nares and nose  

0:50

are the nasal muscles and surrounding the oral fissure so the the labia and the buccal or cheek  

0:57

regions are the bucco labial muscles so let's take  this group by group so the epic cranial muscles  

1:05

are more diverse than what will be discussed here but the major epic cranial muscle is the occipitofrontalis

1:13

muscle so occipital occipital frontalis frontal so those are the two bones that  

1:23

these muscles are going to attach to so we can  conceptualize the occipital frontalis muscle  

1:33

as one large muscle with two bellies a frontal  belly and an occipital belly with a large epi

1:45

cranial aponeurosis between the two or we can  conceptualize them as two separate muscles the  

1:52

frontalis and the occipital for the purposes of  this video we'll treat them as the same muscle  

2:01

with different innervations so when active the  occipitofrontalis muscle is going to elevate  

2:10

the brow so it gives this look of surprise perhaps  slight condescension depending on how you want to  

2:20

mix and match this so the the greatest amount of  movement in expression here is generated by that  

2:28

frontal belly that frontal belly is innervated  by temporal branches of the facial nerve and  

2:37

posterior to that frontal belly we have a very  large and robust epicranial aponeurosis which  

2:45

we can also see here as well this can be very  very extensive the occipital belly is usually  

2:54

smaller than the frontal belly and we can see  that here and typically on cadaveric specimens  

2:59

it might be very hard to see it tends to atrophy  and go through a process of fibrosis with age so  

3:05

if you don't see a very well-developed occipital  belly of occipitofrontalis it's not the end  

3:11

of the world it's probably quite typical the  interesting thing is that that occipital belly  

3:16

is innervated by a different set of branches  versus the frontal belly so that occipital  

3:26

belly is innervated by an occipital branch of the  posterior auricular nerve of the facial nerve so  

3:34

that's that nerve that comes out of the stylomastoid foramen heading back that way so  

3:41

it's going to innervate the occipital belly it's  also going to innervate the posterior auricular  

3:47

and sometimes even the superior auricular nerve  but oftentimes that is dual innervation between  

3:53

the occipital branch and those temporal branches  moving on to the craniofacial group let's start  

4:03

superiorly and work our way down orbicularis oculi  so orbicularis oculi let's let's break that down  

4:14

muscles can be named a variety of ways sometimes  they're named for their attachments or the regions  

4:22

that they over lie sometimes they're named for  the direction of the they're muscle fibers or  

4:29

they're fascicles and in this case it's it's a  little bit of that and a little bit of regional  

4:36

so orbicularis means that the muscle fibers are  arranged in a circular fashion like so and oculi  

4:46

refers to the eye so this is the muscle with  circularly arranged fibers that overlies the  

4:54

eye and there are three parts to it there's the  orbital part the orbital part is the largest part  

5:03

of orbicularis oculi that would be everything  between these two circles that i've drawn that  

5:11

orbital part is what voluntarily and forcefully  closes the palpebral fissure the palpebral part  

5:20

that would be everything within that almond shape  area that I've prescribed overlies the palpebrae  

5:33

so that was very well named in the palpebral part  is voluntarily controllable but typically is under  

5:43

involuntary control so blinking is a function  of the palpebral part you don't spend most of  

5:50

your day thinking time to lubricate the eyes so we  have that going for us there's also a third part  

5:58

of this muscle which lies deep here in the medial  area by the medial angle of the eye called the  

6:06

lacrimal part and this is overlying the lacrimal  apparatus so as to squeeze it to create pressure  

6:13

to draw tears across the eye now all parts of  this muscle are innervated by both temporal and  

6:21

zygomatic branches of the facial nerve so one of  the landmarks that I use is that lateral canthus  

6:28

so we'll have temporal branches above and somatic  branches below now deep to orbicularis oculi and  

6:42

also deep to the frontal belly of occipital  frontal assess a small strip of muscle called  

6:49

the corrugator supercilii corrugator supersilii so this is the superciliary region and  

7:02

corrugator to make corrugated this is a furrow  of the brow so when this muscle contracts  

7:11

like so it pulls the brow together this is an  action that people will take involuntarily when  

7:25

they are confronted with a bright light so this  this can be paired with squinting so along with  

7:33

orbicularis oculi you can contract the corrugator  supercilii so as to provide your eyes a  

7:39

little bit more shade this is also something  that sometimes involuntarily gets gets paired  

7:47

with a disdainful feeling that you might have for  a foreign individual considering this photograph  

7:54

was taken indoors obviously this this person is  acting but this this kind of looks like perhaps  

8:02

the recipient of the gaze is in a little bit of  trouble corrugator supercilii is innervated  

8:07

by temporal branches of the facial nerve so  everything above there would head that way

8:15

next up the buccolabial muscles so we're going to  skip over the the nasal muscles ever so briefly to  

8:28

to turn our attention to those muscles that  are associated with the the oral fissure so  

8:35

there are several here and one of them is going  to be in that nasal group and we'll come back to  

8:41

this one this is one of my favorite muscles the  Levator labii superioris alaeque nasi

8:48

but let's begin with this muscle here levator labii superioris levator labii superioris is just  

8:59

inferior to orbicularis oculi and it's going to  the the superior lip or the upper lip and when  

9:08

levator labii superioris muscles in tandem so let's  say we had both of these firing at the same time  

9:17

that is going to elevate the upper lip hence the  name we also have moving lateral zygomaticus minor  

9:29

zygomaticus minor is over the zygomatic bone and  there are two of these and so the smaller of the  

9:36

two gets the name minor zygomaticus minor when  it fires is going to pull the lip superiorly and  

9:48

laterally so we have kind of a an oblique vector  there and it is going to uncover the teeth to  

9:57

about the canine so there is let's see central  incisor lateral incisor canine it just barely  

10:06

bares the canine sometimes the zygomaticus minor  is present sometimes it's absent sometimes it  

10:17

can be indistinguishable from zygomaticus major so  those two muscles can can go together nevertheless  

10:25

you know if it's they're wonderful if it's not  it's not the end of the world moving laterally  

10:31

we have the zygomaticus major zygomaticus major is  overlying the zygoma or the zygomatic bone and is  

10:40

larger than the minor we can see here that both  of these muscles are coming down to participate  

10:47

in the modeolus that's that inner digitation  of fibro muscular tissues that is controlling the  

10:55

angle of the mouth so what we have are a series  of muscles that are going to contribute to an  

11:05

for a widening smile so levator labii superioris  elevates the lip zygomaticus minor is going to  

11:14

expose to the canine zygomaticus major is going to  go beyond the canine as we can see there so when  

11:23

used in sequence we have an ever widening smile  so how wonderful they're all compliments of what  

11:31

these muscles do to the upper lip and that modeolus controlled the modeolus and you control  

11:39

the mouth these three muscles are all innervated  by both zygomatic and a buccal branches of the  

11:51

facial nerve so zygomatic and buccal branches  of the facial nerve deep to these muscles along  

11:59

with leveator labii superioris alaeque nasi  is that in for orbital or canine facial space

12:15

the muscle of oral fisher facial expression is  going to be orbicularis Oris this this is the  

12:26

money muscle in terms of social media photography  so orbicularis those circularly shaped fibers

12:35

oris of the oral Fisher would be this muscle  here so this will be deep too and surrounding deep to the skin of and surrounding the superior and  inferior lips and when contracted this purses the  

12:58

lips so if you think about that that full lipped  ducky face that people make when they they take  

13:05

selfies that's that's compliments of orbicularis  Oris and orbicularis Oris is innervated by buccal  

13:14

branches so we've got buccal branches coming  across and marginal mandibular branch of the  

13:21

facial nerve next up the Buccinator muscle  the Buccinator muscle is the deepest of all  

13:32

of the facial muscles here so it's originating or  attaching to that pterygomandibular raphe and  

13:40

it comes and it is going to attach to the alveolar  surfaces or ridges surrounding both the maxillary  

13:52

and mandibular teeth so this is really forming the  the muscular wall of the cheek when contracted the  

14:04

Buccinator muscle is going to push anything in  the oral vestibule and deep so that's going to  

14:13

bring food into the occlusal surfaces or between  the occlusal surfaces of maxillary and mandibular  

14:21

teeth for for eating which is a nice thing to do  right it's it's helping the muscles of mastication  

14:29

by bringing the items to be masticated between  the teeth the buccinator muscle is interesting  

14:39

in that it is pierced by the parotid duct and  superficial to it we have a very robust and  

14:47

nice buccal fat pad so we can see that buccal  fat pad here in the cadaveric you mentioned we  

14:54

can see the parotid duct moving across and then  diving deep into what would be the buccal facial  

15:03

space so that buccofacial space is traversed by  Stetsons duct or the parotid duct coming through this  

15:12

space is the buccal branch of v3 so the maxillary  division of the tripe I'm sorry the mandibular  

15:21

division of the trigeminal nerve sends the buccal  nerve anteriorly through this space - apparently  

15:29

serve the the skin of the cheek and also some of  the the gingiva surrounding the the molars very  

15:38

frequently this this buccal nerve is referred to  as the long buccal nerve by clinicians now we also  

15:48

have a couple of other muscles controlling the  the oral fissure life can't be all smiles and so  

15:56

well in this case we're not done smiling deep  to the labii superioris is the so here we  

16:08

have that limit or labii superioris is the levator anguli oris so here coming from the modeolus

16:17

up to the maxilla deep to levator labii superioris  is a levator anguli horas it's an elevator of  

16:27

the angle of the mouth so it's enabling a smile  this muscle is innervated by buccal branches of  

16:38

the facial nerve as it should be for that region  we also have a highly variable muscle the risorius muscle risorius muscle may be present it  may not be present it goes from the Modeolus

16:54

out laterally superficial to that buccofacial  space and when it's activated it pulls the sides  

17:03

of or the angles of the mouth laterally so as to  produce a smirk and like levator anguli oris

17:15

risorius is also innervated by buccal branches  of the facial nerve now some of the the frowny  

17:26

muscles let's start with depressor anguli oris  depressor anguli oris is originating from that or  

17:36

I should say attaching to the Modi olace and going  down to the mandible there depressor depresses  

17:44

the angle of the mouth so it pulls the angle of  the mouth inferior laterally and this muscle is  

17:53

innervated by both buccal branches of the facial  nerve as well as the marginal mandibular branch  

17:59

of the facial nerve we also have depressor  labia inferioris depressor labia inferioris muscle tends to be deep to depressor anguli  oris and this muscle when working in concert with  

18:16

its counterpart is going to depress the lower  lip so to pull it downwards we also have the  

18:27

mentalis muscle the mentalis muscle is in the  mental or that shin region and when active the  

18:36

mentalis muscle is going to produce a pelt by both  elevating and protruding the skin of the chin so  

18:45

by pulling this chin skin upwards it displaces  the lower lip to produce the pout and mentalis  

18:54

is innervated much the same way depressor late  valium for yours is by the marginal mandibular  

19:01

branch of facial now the the nasal muscles  starting with one of my favorite facial muscles  

19:09

the levator labii superioris alaeque nasi so let  me trace this muscle for you this is going to blow  

19:17

your mind so levator labii superioris it's  going to elevate the superior lip which it does  

19:30

and there's also this little slip of muscle that  goes to the ala or the wing of the nose that's  

19:39

the area above the nostril so elevates the upper  lip and also the wing of the nose so Levator

19:51

labii superioris alaeque nasi is  going to dilate the nostril and elevate the upper  

19:59

lip so I kind of think of this as kind of like  the the Elvis snarl if you're familiar with the  

20:07

King of Pop and this muscle is the longest named  muscle of any human muscle so if you're ever at  

20:18

trivia night and you're asked what the longest  name of any muscle is in the human body it's  

20:25

levator labii superioris alaeque nasi which is  innervated by both zygomatic and buccal branches  

20:31

of the facial nerve next up we have the nasalis muscle the nasalis or just the nasal  

20:40

muscle has two parts to it sometimes these  parts are given their own muscle name so we  

20:47

have one part the transverse part that is over  the body of the nose here so running along the  

20:56

bridge of the nose down laterally now when that  contracts it actually constricts the Naris and  

21:05

so that transverse part when given its own name is  called the compressor Naris there's also another  

21:13

part from the alar region that when it contracts  it pulls the alar region outwards that's the  

21:20

alar part also known as dilator naris so compressor  narrows and dilator naris are antagonistic to one  

21:28

another and both are innervated by zygomatic and  buccal branches of seven which makes sense and  

21:35

this leads us to our assessment question and  that would be which muscle may both elevate  

21:42

the upper lip and dilate the Naris so elevate the  upper lip and dilate the Naris let's see levator

21:51

angularis oris that's going to pull the modeolus superolaterally so that's a smiley muscle it's  

21:59

not really an elevator of the upper lip though so  Levator superiois that definitely  

22:06

elevates the upper lip but it doesn't touch the  Narus levator labii superioris aleque nasi

22:15

yeah we've got it zygomaticus major and minor  are both smile muscles so they're pulling the Modeolus

22:22

superior laterally they're not the correct  answer so the muscle with the longest name Levator

22:28

labii superioris alaeque nasi is the  correct answer thank you very much for your time

More transcripts

Explore other videos transcribed with YouTLDR.

Get the TLDR of any YouTube video

Transcribe, summarize, and repurpose videos in 125+ languages — free, no signup required.

Try YouTLDR Free