Nerve · Jaw

Inferior alveolar nerve

Nervus alveolaris inferior

The largest branch of the mandibular nerve and the sensory supply of the lower teeth. It descends between the ramus of the jaw and the sphenomandibular ligament, enters the mandibular foramen on the inner face of the jawbone, and then does what no other large nerve of the face does: it travels forward INSIDE bone, along the mandibular canal, giving a branch to each molar and premolar as it passes beneath them. Near the front it divides into the mental nerve, which leaves the bone for the chin and lip, and an incisive branch that stays inside for the canine and incisors. Just before entering the bone it gives off the nerve to mylohyoid, its only motor branch, supplying mylohyoid and the anterior belly of digastric.