DETERMINATION OF THE LENGTH AND PENETRATION POINT OF THE MASSETERIC NERVE IN THE MASSETER MUSCLE

with the aim of helping in the diagnosis and treatment of the lesions that affect the muscles enervate for masseteric nerve, as well as to offer anatomical information of great importance for the accomplishment of surgeries in the infratemporal area we have done this study. it has the objective to determinate the length and the penetration point of the masseteric nerve, in the masseter muscles. twenty hemiheads were used, fastened in formol, of adult individuals of both sexes and different breed. initially, it was made the dissection of the pieces by an endocranian access, once located the nerves, we passed to the mensuration of the same ones, using as proximal reference the oval foramen and as distal reference the penetration point of the nerve in the muscle. for the determination of the penetration point we used the zygomatic arch as reference. the penetration points were projected to the surface with the aid of a pin, and compared with the references already described giving thus, subsidies for an eventual approach of those structures for the surface. the obtained results were analyzed in a statistics, where we could conclude that there are no significant differences in the length among the right and left sides. we ended although the medium length of the masseteric nerve is of 45,26mm, and that the masseteric nerves penetrate in the superior third of the masseter muscle