The complete anatomy of the human mouth and its parts and functions

The saying goes, your mouth is your tiger. Without a mouth, humans cannot produce sound to communicate. However, the function of the mouth is not only for speaking. The mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract of food. The mouth receives and then crushes and digests the incoming food before it is completely digested by the stomach. Have you fully understood the anatomical structure of your own mouth? Come on, see in the following explanation.

What is the anatomy of the human mouth?

Maybe you can only see the mouth from the very front side, such as the lips, teeth and gums, and the tongue. However, the anatomy of the human mouth is not that simple.

The anatomy of the mouth is divided into two parts, namely the front (anterior) and back (posterior) structures which are the meeting point between the front oral cavity and the esophagus as a food route. Here are more details

The structure of the front oral cavity

The structure of the front oral cavity (source: Blausen.com)

The front mouth cavity is the appearance of the mouth that you can see with the naked eye when you look in the mirror. The shape resembles a horseshoe. This cavity includes the lips (front and inside), inner cheeks, gums and teeth, tongue, roof of the mouth, tonsils (tonsils), and the uvula (small flesh that hangs on the soft palate of the mouth.

The front cavity of the mouth can move up and down, right-left, and close and open with the help of the mandibular jaw and facial expression muscles, especially the orbicularis oris muscle.

The structure of the deep oral cavity

Human mouth and throat anatomy (source: anatomyorgan.com)

The inner oral cavity is the space enclosed by the curved rows of teeth and the upper and lower jaw. Most of these parts are filled by the tongue and salivary glands.

Apart from being widely located on the tongue, palate, lips, and cheeks, humans have three pairs of major salivary glands that open to the front of the mouth. The parotid salivary glands are the largest of the three, located between the ear and the branch of the lower jaw.

The palate, both hard and soft, is also a part of the structure of the inner oral cavity. The hard palate is made of bony plates that separate the nasal cavity and oral cavity. Meanwhile, the soft palate consists of muscles that act as valves to close the oropharyngeal isopharynx and open to separate the nasopharynx (cavity behind the nose and back of the roof of the mouth) from the oropharynx (part of the digestive tract and respiratory tract).

In this inner cavity, there are two main muscles, namely the diaphragm and geniohyoid muscles which serves to pull the larynx forward when swallowing food.

Cheek

The size of each person's cheeks is different depending on the composition of the fat in them. Apart from that, the cheek-forming muscles remain the same, namely the buccinator muscles. This muscle is covered by the mucous membrane of the mouth, which is why your inner cheeks are always slippery and wet.

When chewing food, the cheek muscles work to hold the food that is being torn apart to stay in the curve of the teeth.