Overview

Some of the many muscles of the face — Facial muscles are located throughout your face, including your ears, mouth, forehead, nose and eyes.

What are facial muscles?

Your face has about 20 flat skeletal muscles that attach to different places on your skull. These are your facial muscles (also called craniofacial muscles), and they’re essential to chewing and making facial expressions. They originate from bone or fascia and insert into your skin. Facial muscles work together to control movements in your:

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Cheeks
Chin
Ears (only in some people)
Eyebrows
Eyelids
Forehead
Lips (upper and lower)
Nose and nostrils

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Function

What do the muscles of your face do?

Your facial muscles are responsible for two major tasks: chewing (also called masticating) and making facial expressions. These include smiling, pouting or raising your eyebrows in surprise.

Other functions of the muscles of your face include:

Giving your face its unique appearance
Keeping food and drink in your mouth (preventing drooling)
Protecting your eyes
Singing
Talking
Whistling

Anatomy

Where are your face muscles located?

Facial muscles are located throughout your face, including your ears, mouth, forehead, nose and eyes. They run underneath your skin from your scalp down to your neck. They’re positioned around facial openings and stretch across your skull and neck.

How are your facial muscles structured?

You have many muscles in your face. These muscles are typically paired, meaning you have one on the left side of your face and one on the right side.

The facial muscles involved in chewing (muscles of mastication) are:

Lateral pterygoid, a fan-shaped muscle that helps your jaw open
Masseter, a muscle that runs from your cheek to the side of your jaw and helps your jaw close
Medial pterygoid, a thick muscle that helps your jaw close
Temporalis, a fan-shaped muscle that helps your jaw close

The muscles that control facial expression can be further divided into groups based on where they’re located on your face.

Auricular muscles (ear muscles)

Your auricular muscles are around your ears. They allow some people to move their ears. They are:

Auricularis anterior
Auricularis posterior
Auricularis superior

Buccolabial muscles (mouth muscles)

Your buccolabial muscles are in and around your mouth. They are:

Buccinator, a thin muscle in your cheek that holds it toward your teeth
Depressor anguli oris, which is on the side of your chin and works with other muscles to produce a frown
Depressor labii inferioris, a muscle in your chin that helps control movement in your lower lip
Levator anguli oris, a muscle that helps you smile
Levator labii superioris, which can enable you to smile or show disgust
Levator labii superioris alaeque nasi, which can open your nostrils and lift your upper lip
Mentalis, a muscle toward the center of your chin that helps control your lower lip
Orbicularis oris, a circle of muscle around your mouth that closes or purses your lips
Risorius, which aids in smiling
Zygomaticus major and minor, which allow you to smile

Epicranial muscles (forehead, skull and neck muscles)

Your epicranial muscles are around your forehead, skull and neck. They are:

Occipitofrontalis, a muscle that extends from your eyebrow to the top of your skull, lets you raise your eyebrow and wrinkle your forehead
Platysma, a muscle that wrinkles the skin of your neck, helps open your mouth and allows you to lower the corners of your mouth and lower lip

Nasal muscles (nose muscles)

Your nasal muscles are around your nose. They are:

Nasalis, which allows you to flare your nostrils
Procerus, a muscle (you just have one) between your eyebrows that can pull your brows downward and help flare your nostrils

Orbital muscles (eye muscles)

Your orbital muscles surround your eyes. They are:

Corrugator supercilii, which is near your eyebrow and enables frowning
Orbicularis oculi, which closes your eyelid

What do face muscles look like?

Your face muscles are part of your skeletal system (musculoskeletal system). All the muscles in this system contain elastic fibers that allow them to contract. Some of the fibers look dark and some look light, so they appear striped (striated) red and white when viewed under a microscope.

Conditions and Disorders

What are the common conditions and disorders that affect facial muscles?

To function, your facial muscles get signals from your brain via your facial nerve. But sometimes, they can’t receive those signals properly.

Damage to your facial nerve and problems with your facial muscles can result from:

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Smile — you just used numerous muscles in your face. Your facial muscles work together to control the parts of your face. While you might not think about them much, they’re essential for chewing, making facial expressions and doing many other things. You can’t eat, smile or even talk without them. So, next time you chomp down on your favorite food or laugh at a joke, remember you have your face muscles to thank.

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