the skeleton

axial skeleton · face

Maxilla

Maxilla · two of them · also called upper jaw, upper jawbone

The two maxillae hold the upper teeth, build the floor and outer wall of the nose, the floor of each eye socket, and the front two thirds of the hard palate. Press just under your eye and run a finger down alongside your nose to the gum above your front teeth - that whole ridge is one maxilla.

each maxilla is hollow - the air-filled maxillary sinus inside it is the largest of the paranasal sinuses

what it joins onto

• Frontal bonefront of the braincase - your forehead, brow ridges and the roof of each eye socket
  • frontomaxillary suturefibrous suturenone - it is a fixed join
• Ethmoid bonebetween the eye sockets at the roof of the nose - the lightest of the eight cranial bones
  • ethmoidomaxillary suturefibrous suturenone - it is a fixed join
• Maxillaupper jaw - the paired bones carrying the upper teeth and forming the mid-face
  • intermaxillary suture, between the left and right maxillafibrous suturenone - it is a fixed join
• Zygomatic bonecheekbone - the strut between the eye socket and the arch in front of the ear
  • zygomaticomaxillary suturefibrous suturenone - it is a fixed join
• Nasal bonethe small paired bones making the hard bridge at the top of the nose
  • nasomaxillary suturefibrous suturenone - it is a fixed join
• Lacrimal bonea thin scale in the inner wall of each eye socket, cradling the tear duct
  • lacrimomaxillary suturefibrous suturenone - it is a fixed join
• Palatine bonel-shaped bone completing the back of the roof of the mouth, behind the upper jaw
  • transverse palatine (palatomaxillary) suturefibrous suturenone - it is a fixed join
• Inferior nasal conchaa curled shelf of bone on each side wall of the nose, low in the nasal passage
  • conchomaxillary articulation, at the conchal crestfibrous jointnone - it is a fixed join
• Vomerthe thin ploughshare-shaped plate forming the lower back of the wall inside the nose
  • vomeromaxillary articulation, on the nasal crestfibrous jointnone - it is a fixed join