buccopharyngeal fascia

The buccopharyngeal fascia is a fascia in the head.

It passes through the buccal fat, buccopharyngeal fascia, and buccinator muscle then opens into the vestibule of the mouth next to the maxillary second molar tooth.

The retropharyngeal space is a potential space of the head and neck, bounded by the buccopharyngeal fascia anteriorly and the prevertebral fascia posteriorly.

It is limited above by the base of the skull, and below where the alar fascia fuses with the buccopharyngeal fascia at about the level of T4 and the carina.

The pterygomandibular raphe (pterygomandibular ligament) is a ligamentous band of the buccopharyngeal fascia, attached superiorly to the hamulus of the medial pterygoid plate, and inferiorly to the posterior end of the mylohyoid line of the mandible.

The retropharyngeal lymph nodes, from one to three in number, lie in the buccopharyngeal fascia, behind the upper part of the pharynx and in front of the arch of the atlas, being separated, however, from the latter by the Longus capitis.

Parallel to the carotid sheath and along its medial aspect the prevertebral fascia gives off a thin lamina, the buccopharyngeal fascia, which closely invests the constrictor muscles of the pharynx and is continued forward from the constrictor pharyngis superior onto the buccinator.