THE SUPERIOR MAXILLARY NERVE. 



53a 



Anterior dental branch. — Tlie anterior dental branch, leaving the 

 trunk of the nerve at a varyin<? distance behind its exit from the infra- 

 orbital foramen, enters a special canal m ft-ont of the antrum of High- 

 more. In this canal it receives the communicating filament from the 

 posterior dental nerve, and divides into two branches, which furnish 

 offsets for the front teeth, 



(fl) The inner branch supplies the incisor and canine teeth. Filaments from 

 this nerve enter the lower meatus of the nose, and end in the membrane covering 

 the lower i-pon^y bono. Also above the root of the canine tooth, it unites with a 

 branch of the posterior nasal nerve from Meckel's ganglion, and forms with it a 

 .«mall thickening, the ffanijiif?n/ BocfuJahh. from which branches are described as 

 descending to the alveolar process and gums of the incisor and canine teeth. 

 (See Hyrtl's Lehrbuch, p. 804 ) It is probable, however, that this enlargement 

 contains no nerve cells, and is a minute plexus rather than an actual ganglion. 



(J)} The o'lt:'!- branch gives filaments to the bicuspid teeth, and is connected 

 with the posterior dental nerve. 



Infraorbital branches. — The infi-aorbital l)rancl]e.s, large and 

 numerous, spring from the end of the superior maxillary nerve beneath 

 the elevator muscle of the iippei- lip, and are divisible into palpebral, 

 nasal, and labial sets. 



Fig. 33S. 



Fig. 33S — Deep View op the SfhenoPalatine (tAnglion, and its CoNNECTIO^■3 

 ■WITH oTUEK Nkrves, hc. (from Sappey after HirscLfeld and Loveille). I 

 1, superiur uiaxillar.v nerve , 2, posterior superior dental ; 3, second posterior dental 

 brancli ; \, anterior >)ental . ."), iiinon of these nerves ; 6, spbeno-palatine ganglion ; 7, 

 Vitliau nerve ; 8, its great superficial peirosul branch ; 9, its carotid branch ; 10, a laart 

 of the sixth nerve, lecerviiig twigs from the carotid plexus of the sympathetic ; 11, 

 superior cervical synjxjathetic ganglion; 12, its carotid branch; I'i, trunk of the facial 

 uervc near the knee or bend at the hiatus Fallopii ; 14, glosso-pharyngeal nerve ; 15, 

 anastcniosing branch of Jacobson ; 16, twig uniting it to the sympathetic ; 17, filameut 

 \o ihe fenestra rotunda ; 18, filament to the Eustachian tube ; 19, filament to the fenestra 

 ov.ilis ; 20, external deep petrosal nerve uniting with the le.sser superficial petrosal ; 21, 

 internal deep petrosal twig uniting -with the great superficial petrosal. 



a. The 2>'^hJcJ)ral hranch (there are .sometimes two branches) turns upwards to 

 the lower eyelid in a groove or canal of the bone, and supplies the orbicular 

 muscle ; it ends in filaments which are distributed to the eyelid in its entire 

 breadth. At the outer angle of the eyelids this nerve is connected with the 

 facial nerve. 



h. The nil sal hrcne/wx, directed inwards to the muscles and integument of the 

 side of the nose, communicate with the citcaneous branch of the nasal nerve. 



c. The lahial, the largest of the terminal branches of the upper maxillary 



