FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF MASTICATORY MUSCLES IN MAMMALS AND HUMANS

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 96  (4) , 478-485
Abstract
Amendments and additions are made to Fabian''s tables giving a functional assessment of individual masticatory muscles. The data refer only to the temporalis, masseter, pterygoideus medialis, pterygoideus lateralis and digastricus muscles. The weights of these muscles were determined in 3 fixed human cadavers and the mean values compared with those of apes, carnivores, herbivores and rodents. In humans, the most powerful masticatory muscle is the temporalis, followed by the masseter, as in apes and carnivores. The pterygoideus is also one of the most important. This is remarkable, since in the other groups this muscle occupies the last place. This relative strengthening of the pterygoideus lateralis is an important characteristic of the human masticatory apparatus. In humans, the difference between the relative weights of the individual masticatory muscles is not nearly so great as in other mammalian groups. The pterygoideus lateralis does lie close behind the other 2 big adductors (temporalis and masseter) but, as regards power and weight, it hardly differs from the pterygoideus medialis and the digastricus. In humans the strengthening affects not only the pterygoideus lateralis but also the digastricus. It would seem that these 2 masticatory muscles could become the key to the understanding of the specific changes in human mastication.

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