Adelaide Dental School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
School of Life Dentistry at Niigata, The Nippon Dental University, Niigata, Japan.
Aust Dent J. 2018 Mar;63(1):66-71. doi: 10.1111/adj.12543. Epub 2017 Sep 8.
The buccal branch of the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve is commonly anaesthetized for dental procedures and may be damaged during surgery. Descriptions of the distribution of the buccal nerve (BN) in anatomical texts are generally lacking in detail and do not provide information about the extent of its variation between individuals. There are also commonly-held clinical beliefs about the BN that lack support from anatomical dissections.
Detailed dissections of the course and distribution of the BN were performed in a sample of 12 hemi-heads from 11 edentulous and partially dentate human adult cadavers.
A broader distribution of the BN was found than described previously, with innervation extending to the lips in all cases. Approximately half of the lateral sides of the lips were innervated by the BN in two cases and approximately one-third of their lateral sides in the other 10 cases. Distribution of the BN to the lower lips was wider than to the upper lips.
Our findings provide a stronger anatomical basis to underpin clinical procedures involving the BN and indicate that some commonly-held clinical views about this nerve are not supported by anatomical evidence.
下颌神经的颊支常用于牙科手术中的麻醉，但在手术过程中可能会受损。解剖学文本中对颊神经（BN）的分布描述通常不够详细，也没有提供关于其在个体之间变异程度的信息。临床上关于 BN 的一些普遍观点也缺乏解剖学证据的支持。
对 11 名无牙和部分牙列的成人尸体的 12 个半头标本进行了 BN 行程和分布的详细解剖。
我们发现 BN 的分布比以前描述的更为广泛，所有情况下都有神经支配到嘴唇。在两个病例中，约一半的嘴唇外侧由 BN 支配，在其他 10 个病例中，约三分之一的嘴唇外侧由 BN 支配。BN 对下唇的支配范围大于对上唇的支配范围。
我们的发现为涉及 BN 的临床操作提供了更强的解剖学基础，并表明一些临床上关于该神经的观点没有得到解剖学证据的支持。
