Nerve · Head

Maxillary nerve

Nervus maxillaris

The middle division of the trigeminal nerve and the sensory nerve of the mid-face: the cheek, the side of the nose, the upper lip, the whole upper dental arch and the palate. Like the ophthalmic division above it, it is entirely sensory. It leaves the skull through foramen rotundum into the pterygopalatine fossa — a small fat-filled crossroads tucked behind the cheekbone — sheds most of its branches there, then enters the eye socket and finishes on the face as the infraorbital nerve. Everything that goes numb after an injection for upper dental work lies in its territory, which is the simplest way to picture where V2 begins and ends.