Oral Cavity

00:01 Now let's take a look at the oral cavity.

00:05 The oral cavity is bounded anteriorly by the oral fissure, really the space between the lips.

00:14 Posteriorly, we have the oropharyngeal isthmus, beyond which, were beyond the oral cavity and into the oropharynx.

00:24 Laterally we have the cheeks.

00:28 When we look from below towards the superior aspect of the oral cavity, we see the hard and soft palates and these form the roof of the oral cavity.

00:39 The hard palate is the area that has bone and the soft palate lacks bone.

00:44 If we're looking down, we actually see the tongue, a very complicated ball of muscles.

00:50 As well as what's called the muscular diaphragm.

00:53 And a lot of these muscles are going to be composed of what are called suprahyoid muscles or muscles that attach to the hyoid bone.

01:02 Together these are gonna make up the floor of the oral cavity.

01:06 Here we see a little space between the lips in the teeth called the oral vestibule.

01:13 Beyond which we have the oral cavity proper.

01:19 And in a sagittal cross section through the midline, we can see some of the skeletal framework for the oral cavity.

01:27 We have the mandible forming the lower portion.

01:32 And then more posteriorly, we have that very important neck bone called the hyoid.

01:39 More superiorly we have the maxilla.

01:43 And posterior to the maxilla is the rest of the hard palate formed by the palatine bone.