Anatomy of the Buccal Mucosa
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Hello everyone, Sidney Levy here, continuing our
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discussion of the anatomy of the oral cavity.
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I would like to begin with the buccal mucosa,
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which is also including the mucosal lips.
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The first thing I'd like to say is there's been a recent
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redefinition of the lips in relation to the oral cavity.
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Previously, the entire lips were
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considered part of the oral cavity.
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Now it's only the mucosal portion of the lips,
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so the cutaneous portion of the lips or dry lips,
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are anterior to the line of contact of the
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opposing lips, which I'll show you in just a moment.
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Once again, I have our pre-contrast fat
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suppressed T1 weighted imaging in three planes.
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Before I go any further, I will quickly point out that
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this particular patient has an oral tongue malignancy,
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which, uh, we're not going to discuss any further, but
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in case you are wondering why there is some
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distortion of the appearance of the tongue on
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the coronal projection, that is the reason.
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And I'd just like to draw for you the, 22 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:16,820 the buccal mucosa and explain some of the relations.
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So, on the axial projection, we're
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essentially dealing with one line.
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That line is here, and then on the coronal projection,
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we have the gingivobuccal sulci, where the alveolar mucosa
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meets the buccal mucosa, and they appear as lines as well.
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And on the sagittal projection, where the mucosal
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lips oppose one another, at this point here,
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we have a little bit of buccal mucosa which
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extends posteriorly to meet the alveolar mucosa.
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So now, relations.
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So, lateral to the buccal mucosa, we have the
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buccal spaces, which are deep neck spaces.
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And the easiest way to identify those
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is to look for the buccinator muscles.
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So, the buccinator muscles are here.
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Anteriorly, we have the cutaneous portion
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of the lips, which we can identify here.
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Now posteriorly, we have the retromolar trigone.
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Now, this is an important area where the buccal
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and the alveolar mucosa meet one another posterior
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to the molars, or the most posterior molar.
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That's here.
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At this point, in the deep layers, the buccinator muscles
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meet the pharyngeal constrictors at a structure called
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the pterygomandibular raphe, which you can appreciate.
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So in summary, I have drawn the buccal mucosa.
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including the mucosal portion of the lips for you.
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It's best to think of it as the mucous membrane that
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lines the inner surface of the cheeks and the lips.
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And I've drawn its boundaries and its
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relations in particular to the cutaneous lips
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anteriorly, the buccal spaces laterally with the
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buccinator muscles, and the retromolar trigone
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posteriorly with the pterygomandibular raphe.
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58 00:03:28,114 --> 00:03:30,674 In our next vignette, we will go on to
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discuss the rest of the oral cavity subsites.
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Thank you.
Sidney Levy, PhD, MBBS
Radiologist and Nuclear Medicine Specialist
I-MED
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