Head and neck muscles (chewing, facial, and throat muscles)

Mylohyoid

Musculus mylohyoideus

Origin

Mylohyoid line on the inner surface of the mandible

Insertion

Median raphe (between both muscles) and the body of the hyoid bone

Function

Forms the floor of the mouth; elevates the hyoid bone and tongue during swallowing; depresses the mandible when the hyoid bone is fixed

Innervation

Mylohyoid nerve (branch of the inferior alveolar nerve, CN V3)

Movement & chain

Both sides together form a muscular sheet that initiates the oral phase of swallowing by pressing the tongue against the palate and moving the hyoid-larynx complex upward.

Palpation

Felt as a taut sheet under the chin when pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth.

Clinical

Relevant in floor-of-mouth abscesses (Ludwig's angina), where swelling beneath this muscular sheet can threaten the airway.

Segmental innervation

CN V3 (mylohyoid branch), motor.

In clinical practice

Forms the dividing plane between the superficial and deep parts of the submandibular gland, making it relevant for bimanual palpation of the floor of the mouth during physical examination.

Region in the model

Head and neck muscles (chewing, facial, and throat muscles)