Submandibular gland at a glance
- What it is
- The submandibular gland is a major salivary gland located below the mandible.
- Location
- It lies in the submandibular triangle, wrapping around the posterior border of the mylohyoid muscle, with its duct (Wharton duct) opening at the sublingual caruncle.
- Function
- It produces mixed serous and mucous saliva, about 60 to 70 percent of resting saliva.
- Body system
- Digestive · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA59803 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervated by the facial nerve via chorda tympani and submandibular ganglion.
- The lingual nerve and hypoglossal nerve lie close to the duct and gland.
Clinical relevance
It is the most common salivary gland for stones (sialolithiasis).
Structures next to the submandibular gland
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Lower second secondary molar tooth · digestive
- Mylohyoid · muscular
- Lower first secondary molar tooth · digestive
- Hyoglossus · muscular
- Digastric · muscular
- Genioglossus · muscular
- Tongue · digestive
- Sublingual gland · digestive
- Pterygomandibular raphe · muscular
- Lower second secondary premolar tooth · digestive
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Submandibular gland (FMA59803). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §23.1 Overview of the Digestive System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.