CLINICAL ANATOMY OF THE ORAL CAVITY FLOOR

Modern development of dentistry and maxillofacial surgery requires thorough basic morphological studies of the oral cavity and surrounding tissues, as well as generalization of existing literature data. The analysis of modern scientific literature allows us to conclude that, despite a number of scientific anatomical works, the determination of ontogenetic transformations and individual anatomical variability of muscles and fasciae, blood vessels and nerves of the human oral cavity floor are topical issues of modern medicine. The floor of the mouth is a complex of soft tissues (muscles, fascia, subcutaneous tissue, glands, blood vessels, and nerves) located between the mandible and the hyoid bone. The main muscle of the floor of the oral cavity is the paired maxillary hyoid muscle. There are two permanent gaps in the floor of the oral cavity: 1) between the posterior margin of the maxillomandibular muscle and the hyoid-lingual muscle; 2) between the muscle fiber bundles of the maxillomandibular muscle in the area of the anastomosis of the lingual and chin arteries. The inconsistent gap through which the tissues of the hyoid and suprahyoid areas are connected includes the gap of the oral diaphragm at the point where the "diaphragmatic" process of the hyoid gland enters it. There are several intermuscular spaces between the muscles of the floor of the mouth, which play an important role in the spread of inflammatory processes in the floor of the mouth. Thus, above the maxillary hyoid muscle, there are 1) paired beds of sublingual salivary glands, or lateral cellular spaces of the floor of the mouth, which are bounded from above - by the mucous membrane that runs from the tongue to the gums of the lower jaw; from below - by the maxillary hyoid muscle; medially - by the tongue muscles; laterally - by the lower jaw; 2) an unpaired internal intermuscular space between the right and left hyoid and tongue muscles, containing a small layer of loose connective tissue, where deep inflammatory processes can develop; 3) paired intermuscular spaces between the hyoid and tongue muscles and the hyoid and tongue muscles. Below the maxillomandibular muscle there are: 1) paired interfascial gaps between the subcutaneous neck muscle, which is covered by the superficial neck fascia, and the division of the superficial plate of the neck fascia proper, which forms the fascial vagina of the submandibular salivary gland; 2) unpaired musculofascial gap between the anterior belly of the biceps brachii and the maxillomandibular muscles. The conducted meta-analysis of foreign and domestic literature will broaden the horizons of scientists, students and doctors about the morphological features of fascial and cellular spaces, muscles, main and additional sources of blood supply and innervation of the walls of the oral cavity, especially its floor, with regard to the forms of age-related anatomical variability.