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The Muscles of the Face
Smiling, frowning, eating, drinking, and speaking involve the face's 43 facial muscles. The brain controls those muscles with the seventh cranial nerve, located on each side of your face. This important nerve, located between the cerebral cortex and the front of your ears, branches off into the mandibular, temporal, cervical, zygomatic, and buccal areas also located on each side of your face. The seventh cranial nerve energizes the muscles allowing for a variety of expression and movement using those branches:
- mandibular: area around jaw and mouth
- temporal: sides of forehead and front facial areas
- cervical: neck areas
- zygomatic: cheek areas of eye and mouth (smiling)
- buccal: around the mouth
Facial Motor and Sensory Nerves
The Head and Neck: Muscles, Bones, and Nerves
The Nerves of That Brain
Think of the brain as the central processing unit of a computer. It controls everything regarding the human body. The brain has two hemispheres, the right and the left. The left side of the brain controls facial movement, including the tongue, throat, and jaw, which allow words to form. If this side of the brain is injured or has a birth defect or deformity, then motor and sensory skills are affected, which in turn can affect speech. The seventh cranial, or facial, nerve also can be damaged or injured through birth defects, infections, tumors, or accidents. This in turn affects the five branches controlling the motor and sensory movement of the face. The brain tells the nerves to tell the muscles to work and how to work. Another facial nerve is the fifth cranial nerve, called the trigeminal nerve which controls sensory, or feeling, sensations about the face and head. It also controls the muscles for chewing food.
The Function and Location of the 12 Cranial Nerves
Facial Nerve Anatomy and Function
The Muscles of the Face
It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. No one knows exactly how many muscles it takes for the average person to smile or to frown, as everyone is unique.
The are twelve main muscles of the face:
- frontalis
- orbicularis oculi
- orbital portion
- palpebral portion
- zygomaticus major
- levator labii superioris alequae nasii
- levator anguli oris
- orbicularis oris
- risorius
- depressor anguli oris
- depressor labii inferioris
- mentalis
- platysm
Each of the twelve specifically has a function such as raising and lowering the eyelids, moving the mouth, wiggling the nose. Some choose to deliberately weaken the muscles of the face by having a plastic surgeon inject a Botulinum toxin, commonly referred to by its brand trade name, Botox, into certain facial muscles. This injection weakens nearby muscles by blocking the nerve impulses that make the muscles contract causing wrinkling. This gives the face a more youthful appearance that lasts around four months. Unfortunately this interferes with the natural processes of brain-nerve-muscle communication which can cause side effects including facial pain and muscle weakness.
Muscles of the Face Interactive