hello all this is dr. Alsup and thank you for joining me to talk about the parotid gland so
in the last learning objective video we discussed the location of the parotid gland so in this video
we're gonna focus more on the function of the parotid gland and kind of overall in terms of
the salivary glands and how its secretion saliva will make its way to the oral cavity
as parotid gland is an exocrine gland it will have an important duct that will allow the transport
to the oral cavity so salivary glands these do exactly what you likely expect salivary glands
to do which is to produce saliva salivary glands are examples of exocrine glands which produce and
secrete substances onto an epithelial surface by way importantly of a duct remember how this
differs from an endocrine gland like the thyroid or the parathyroid glands which secretes hormones
directly into the bloodstream so no ducts there are three sets or pairs of cell main
pairs of salivary glands the parotid glands are the largest which is going to be the main focus
of this session the submandibular glands are very prominent under the chin region and it's
also the major producer of saliva so this submandibular gland here and the sublingual glands are
associated with the sublingual space and thus are deeper than those submandibular glands there are
also smaller salivary glands which are associated with in the oral cavity these include the labial
the buccal the palatal and the lingual these are generally quite small and we really won't discuss
these in much more detail so what is saliva well it is basically just serous fluid with a little
bit of mucus and some digestive enzymes saliva is hugely important in the maintenance of oral
health and decreased secretion from these salivary glands can result in increased incidence of oral
conditions such as periodontal disease or dental caries or infections it's also very important in
terms of lubrication to assist in swallowing as well as moistening the oral cavity now even
though the product glands are quite large it is actually the submandibular glands that are
going to produce the majority of the saliva within the oral cavity people produce varying amounts of
saliva dependent on many different factors things like are you about to eat Are you ill is there an
infection in the mouth are you a baby saliva can act as a fluid seal for suckling so you often see
babies with a very noticeable amount of saliva so let's quickly review the general area of the
parotid gland it is going to be located in the parotid fossa which is anterior to the ear but
not quite in the cheek region make sure to review the parotid fossa video and learning objective to
really review those more exact boundaries of the parotid fossa since the parotid gland is located
comparatively far away from the oral cavity it has to have a relatively long duct to get to the oral
cavity and this duct is referred to as the parotid duct but you will likely more commonly hear it
referred to as Stinson's duct in the clinic so let's review the pathway of the parotid duct
the duct will emerge from the anterior border of the parotid gland right here and it is typically
pretty obvious superficial to the masseter muscle so here's your master muscle right here to me the
duct looks kind of like a large artery or the vein but of course it's not it's a duct but at
that anterior border of the masseter muscle it's going to turn medially to pierce through the buccinator
muscle and that's where you can kind of lose it at this point in terms of the view
actually right here we're looking at the buccal fat pad and the buccinator muscle will be deep
to that so when you're thinking of the buccinator muscle think the cheek region the duct will enter
the oral vestibule opposite the second maxillary molar can kind of see right here and what you
see in the oil vestibule is this little mounding right here and right in the middle there's going
to be a little opening which is the papilla of the product saliva from the parotid gland will
secrete through here and then it's in the oral cavity so that is the parotid gland and it's
parotid duct let's spend the last two minutes with a question okay question the parotid duct pierces
which muscle before it enters the oral vestibule is it a the buccinator b masseter c omohyoid
D orbicularis Oris or E sternocleidomastoid try to answer this question without reviewing
your notes see if you had this lodged in your memory and when you're ready the correct answer
is going to be a the Buccinator which recall is in the cheek region the product will dive through
this muscle to enter the oral vestibule region or to allow for the the flow of the saliva to
reach that region the Buccinator is a muscle of facial expression we will talk about it in a
bit more detail in the next session the masseter muscle is a good distractor as the parotid duct
does have a close relationship with the masseter but the duct runs superficial to this muscle and
does not dive deep so this is a more proximal relationship the omohyoid muscle is a strapped
muscle of the neck in the sternocleidomastoid muscle is also associated with the neck so both
of these are incorrect the orbicularis Oris muscle is another muscle of facial expression
that actually surrounds the entire mouth region so this is close it's getting closer to the mouth
in the world vestibule but not the correct answer so that should wrap us up for this video do always
feel free to reach out with any questions after your review and have a wonderful day