The muscles of mastication, including temporalis, masseter, medial pterygoid, and lateral pterygoid, facilitate chewing and jaw movement. The temporalis aids in jaw closure, while the masseter contributes to jaw closing and clenching. The medial pterygoid assists in jaw closure and lateral movement, and the lateral pterygoid protrudes the mandible forward. These muscles collaborate to ...

Ask the patient to open their mouth and deviate their mandible to the right and left to check for competence of the medial and lateral pterygoid muscles. Test for corneal reflex – note this requires a competent ophthalmic branch and temporal and zygomatic branches of the facial nerve.

The muscles of mastication are paired on each side and work together to produce the movements of the mandible. The main muscles involved are the masseter, temporalis and medial and lateral pterygoid muscles.

Objectives This study aimed to compare the thickness and stiffness of the masseter, anterior temporalis, and sternocleidomastoid muscles of patients diagnosed with myofascial temporomandibular disorders (TMD) pain to those of a control group. Methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted at a single center. Twenty-five patients diagnosed with myofascial TMD pain and 29 asymptomatic ...

More specifically, for mastication, four main muscles are described: the masseter, temporalis, medial pterygoid, and lateral pterygoid muscles. Bone remodelling induced by mechanical stress was described as early as 1892 by Wolff, who noted that “bone in a healthy person or animal adapts to the forces to which it is subjected” .