Parotid Gland

00:01 Next, we're gonna look at the largest salivary gland, the parotid gland, as well as the facial nerves branches.

00:08 And we're looking at them together because we're gonna see that the facial nerve is very closely related to the product gland.

00:16 So the parotid gland is a very descriptive name because par-otid means next to the ear, and we can see the parotid gland sits very closely to the ear.

00:29 We see that the parotid gland being pretty far from the mouth relatively speaking compared to other salivary glands, it's gonna have a long duct called the parotid duct in order to reach the oral cavity.

00:42 That parotid duct is going to run over this muscle of mastication or chewing called the masseter.

00:49 Pass a buccal fat pad, again, buccal refers to cheek and then pierce is one of the muscles of facial expression called the Buccinator.

00:59 The one that helps press food between the two teeth.

01:05 Internally, it's going to terminate at a little bump on the inside of the mouth called the parotid papilla.

01:13 And that's where it's going to deliver its salivary fluid.

01:19 Now we have to point out the parotid gland here in order to talk about the facial nerve because it actually runs through the parotid gland.

01:27 So we have to fade away the parotid land in order to see the facial nerve which is going to innervate these muscles of facial expression.

01:38 So if we zoom in, here, we can see it exiting the stylomastoid foramen, that little hole or opening between the styloid process and the mastoid process of the temporal bone.

01:50 There are going to be several branches of the facial nerve that are going to go off and supply all those muscles we talked about in the muscles of facial expression.

01:59 There are going to be temporal branches, zygomatic branches, buccal branches, cervical branches, posterior auricular cervical branches, posterior auricular branches and all of those names give you a general idea of the location that they're going to and supplying.