Anatomie descriptive du tiers moyen de la face

Abstract

The middle third of the face comes in three areas: malar, zygomatic and orbital. Its bone's base, essentially formed by the maxilla and the zygoma, shows an orbital edge whose projection is not flat and offers an integration to the arcus marginalis. The orbicularis oculi muscle (OOM), wide muscular sheet, is held by several ligamentary structures, one of which is the orbicularis retaining ligament (ORL), peripheric around the orbit and by malar septa. The two layers of fat, one superficial and one deep, are split by the OOM. The deep malar fat pad (or suborbicularis oculi fat pad [SOOF]) is compact with the tracti that cover it and acts as a syssarcosis. The superficial malar fat pad is thick and divided by retinaculi cutis. It acts as a buffer zone in the interorificial role allowing different functions like the gradation in the comical expression and the wide opening for the mouth prehension. This anatomic disposition complies with Lambros' clinical observations who noticed few cutaneous moves of the malar area.