Muscles of the Nose

Chapter 5. Muscles of the Nose

The musculature of the nose may be broadly divided by function into elevators, depressors, compressors, and dilators (Figure 5-1).

Figure 5-1. Muscles of the nose.

The procerus, an elevator, is a small pyramidal muscle that lies deep to the superior orbital artery and nerve. The procerus arises from the fascia covering the lower part of the nasal bones and upper part of the lateral nasal cartilage, inserts into the skin over the lower part of the forehead between the two eyebrows (the fibers of the procerus decussate with those of the frontalis), and functions to pull the skin between the eyebrows inferiorly assisting in flaring the nares.1

The levator labii alaeque nasi arises from the frontal process of the maxilla alongside the nose. Part of this muscle inserts into the nasal skin and the upper edge of the lower lateral cartilage, but the majority passes obliquely downward to the skin and muscle of the upper lip. The nasal portion of this muscle serves to widen the nares, and the labial portion serves to depress the nasal tip.¹