TY  - JOUR
A1  - ,  
T1  - Anatomy of the lateral pterygoid muscle and its relationship with temporomandibular disorders. A literature review
JO  - Eur. J. Anat.
SN  - 1136-4890
Y1  - 2020
VL  - 24
SP  - 249
EP  - 256
UR  - http://www.eurjanat.com/web/paper.php?id=190568jv
KW  - Anatomical sciences â?? Lateral ptery-goid muscle â?? Temporomandibular joint â?? Tem-poromandibular dysfunction â?? Human body
N2  - The lateral pterygoid muscle is a chewing muscle that is found bilaterally in the cranial region. Ana-tomically, the lateral pterygoid muscle is made up of two bellies, an upper belly and a lower belly. Its anatomical description present in the scientific lit-erature showed that there is an anatomical differ-ence or variation, mainly the insertions of the up-per belly of the lateral pterygoid muscle at the level of the temporomandibular joint, and specifically in the disc and articular condyle, although distribu-tions are reported similarly. They are not entirely accurate in smaller quantities: some articles re-ported variations in the insertion of the lower belly and others the appearance of a third belly of the lateral pterygoid muscle or medial belly. As men-tioned above, a high number of studies that pre-sented some type of lateral pterygoid muscle vari-ation was associated with some type of temporo-mandibular disorders of the joint or some of its in-tra or extra-articular components. A review of the literature in scientific databases was carried out after the selection of the scientific articles, which were analyzed in full text, and the relationship be-tween the anatomy of the lateral pterygoid muscleand the temporomandibular disorders was sought.
ER  -