Penetration of muscles by branches of the mandibular nerve: a possible cause of neuropathy.

We carried out detailed dissections of the branches of the mandibular nerve and muscles innervated by these branches to investigate their positional relationships. We made the following observations: 1) small branch of the auriculotemporal nerve penetrated the lateral pterygoid muscle; 2) the entire lingual nerve penetrated the medial pterygoid muscle; and 3) branch of the mylohyoid nerve penetrated the mylohyoid muscle and communicated with the submandibular ganglion. No detailed descriptions of these nerve branches have been reported previously. The existence of these nerve branches that penetrate muscles might result in the neuralgic pain in the trigeminal region when such pain is of unknown origin. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.