Bone · Head

Lacrimal

Os lacrimale

The smallest and most fragile bone of the face, roughly the size of a fingernail and not much thicker, set into the front of the inner wall of the eye socket just behind the inner corner of the eye. Its front edge is hollowed into a vertical groove which, together with a matching groove on the upper jaw beside it, makes the fossa that holds the lacrimal sac. That is its whole reason for being: tears wash across the eye toward the inner corner, drain into the sac, and pass down a short duct into the nose beneath the lowest nasal scroll — which is why crying makes the nose run.