OVERVIEW

The head is divided into the cranial and the facial parts. The skull is composed of 28 separate bones organized into the following groups: the cranial vault, the auditory ossicles, and the facial bones. The cranial vault consists of 8 bones that protect the brain. They include the parietal, temporal, frontal, occipital, sphenoid, and ethmoid bones. The facial bones form the structure of the face in the anterior skull but do not contribute to the cranial vault. They are the maxilla, mandible, zygomatic, palatine, nasal, lacrimal, vomer, and inferior nasal concha bones. The frontal and ethmoid bones also contribute to the face. The forehead, the temples, eyes,eyebrows, the cheeks, the cheekbones, nose, oral cavity and chin compose the face. In the oral cavity there are 32 permanent teeth, hard and soft palates, palatine tonsils, salivary glands, and a tongue. The types of the teeth are incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.