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The pterygoid hamulus is a hook-like process at the lower extremity of the medial pterygoid plate of the sphenoid bone of the skull. It is the superior origin of the pterygomandibular raphe , and the levator veli palatini muscle .
The medial pterygoid plate (or medial pterygoid lamina) of the sphenoid bone is a horse-shoe shaped process that arises from its underside.. It is narrower and longer than the lateral pterygoid plate and curves lateralward at its lower extremity into a hook-like process, the pterygoid hamulus, around which the tendon of the tensor veli palatini glides.
The pterygomandibular raphe (pterygomandibular fold [1] or pterygomandibular ligament) is a thin [2] tendinous band of buccopharyngeal fascia.It is attached superiorly to the pterygoid hamulus of the medial pterygoid plate, and inferiorly to the posterior end of the mylohyoid line of the mandible.
Skull diagram of Champsosaurus, showing the pterygoid bone in red-violet (visible in inferior view at lower right and posterior to the ectopterygoid bone in lateral view at top)
Each medial pterygoid plate (except its hamulus) is ossified in membrane, and its center probably appears about the ninth or tenth week; the hamulus becomes chondrified during the third month, and almost at once ossifies (Fawcett). The medial joins the lateral pterygoid plate about the sixth month.
The pterygoid canal (also vidian canal) is a passage in the sphenoid bone of the skull leading from just anterior to the foramen lacerum in the middle cranial fossa to the pterygopalatine fossa.
Inferiorly, the muscle converges to form a tendon of attachment. This tendon winds medially around the pterygoid hamulus (with a small bursa interposed between the two) to insert into the palatine aponeurosis and into the bony surface posterior to the palatine crest of the horizontal plate of palatine bone.
The medial pterygoid muscle consists of two heads. The bulk of the muscle arises as a deep head from just above the medial surface of the lateral pterygoid plate.The smaller, superficial head originates from the maxillary tuberosity and the pyramidal process of the palatine bone.