Buccinator
The buccinator is a muscle of the cheek. It is responsible for compressing the cheek and is important in mastication.
The points of origin and insertion, and the actions of the buccinator muscle:
| Origin: | Maxilla and mandible |
| Insertion: | Orbicularis Oris |
| Actions: |
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The buccinator is one of the muscles of the head, neck, and face taught as part of many courses in Indian Head Massage. As this is a popular therapy we have included several pages that may be of interest to students of Indian Head Massage. See, for example, the page about skeletal structures of the head and neck.
See the page about Facial Muscles to view the location of the buccinator muscle.
(This page consists of an interactive, rather than just a labelled, diagram, so you'll have to test yourself by guessing which muscle is the buccinator until you find the correct label.)
More about Muscles:
- The structure of muscle tissue and the structure of muscle cells
- Labelled diagrams of the muscles in different parts of the body including anterior muscles, posterior muscles and facial muscles
- Various other pages about e.g. types of muscle contractions, movements at joints, muscular disorders and related topics such as books about sports medicine
Click for pages about muscles
