Mandibular division of the trifacial nerve.
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| colspan="2" |Mandibular division of trifacial nerve, seen from the middle line. The small figure is an enlarged view of the otic ganglion.
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|Latin
|colspan="2"|n. mandibularis
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|colspan="2"|[subject #200 ]
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|Innervates
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|From
|colspan="2"|trigeminal nerve
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|To
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|MeSH
|colspan="2"|[A08.800.800.120.760.500]
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|Dorlands/Elsevier
|colspan="2"|[n_05/12566125]
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The mandibular nerve (V3) is the largest of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve.
a large sensory root proceeding from the inferior angle of the semilunar ganglion.
a small motor root (the motor part of the trigeminal), which passes beneath the ganglion, and unites with the sensory root, just after its exit through the foramen ovale.
Path
It exits the cranial fossa (at the base of the skull) through the foramen ovale.
It runs into the mandible via the mandibular foramen where it becomes the inferior alveolar nerve. (The inferior alveolar nerve carries sensation from the teeth of the lower jaw and their surrounding soft tissue.)
Immediately beneath the base of the skull, the nerve gives off from its medial side a recurrent branch (nervus spinosus) and the nerve to the medial pterygoid muscle, and then divides into two trunks, an anterior and a posterior.
