Nerve · Head

Zygomaticotemporal nerve

Nervus zygomaticotemporalis

The upper of the zygomatic nerve's two terminal branches, supplying the skin over the front of the temple. It runs in a groove on the inner surface of the lateral orbital wall, passes through the zygomaticotemporal foramen into the temporal fossa, ascends between the bone and the temporalis muscle, and pierces the temporal fascia a short distance above the zygomatic arch to reach the skin. Its second job is the more consequential one: it hands a communicating branch to the lacrimal nerve carrying the parasympathetic fibres that make the tear gland secrete — fibres that began in the facial nerve and relayed in the pterygopalatine ganglion. Beware the name: the temporal BRANCHES of the facial nerve are motor to the forehead, not sensory.