On the development and finer structure of the corpus adiposum buccae

Abstract

NINE FIGURESThe corpus adiposum buccae or sucking pad is a specialized and sharply circumscribed mass of adipose tissue which lies in the cheek partially wedged between the masseter and buccinator muscles and covered externally by the superficial fascia of the face and the zygomatic muscle. Posteriorly, it iseconnected by a stalk with a much larger fat mass, termed by Forster ('04) the corpus adiposum malae, which is located between the temporal and the pterygoid muscles and which possesses a superficial process extending over the outer surface of the temporal muscle beneath the temporal fascia.2The sucking pad was apparently first mentioned by Heister in 1732, who, thinking it was glandular in character, termed it the glandula molares. Winslow, about twenty years later, again described the structure as a gland and wrote of a series of small 1 This study was carried out with the aid of a grant from the Research Fund of the University of Minnesota.2 The body has received many names. Besides the term applied to it by Heister, under a misconception of its nature, the structure has also been called the boule graisseuse, boule de Bichat, Wangenfettpfropf, Wangenfettpolster, Saugpolster, sucking pad, and sucking cushion. It is not dear that the B. N. A. term, corpus adiposum buccae, which I have employed here, was originally intended for this particular fat mass; in fact, it is more probable that this expression was meant t o indicate the entire mass of which the corpus adiposum malae forms the main body. However, most modern authors have used the B. N. A. term in the narrow sense of the sucking pad proper, and t o avoid further synonymity I have followed their example. Berg ('ll), in his classification of the fat masses of the body, places the corpus adiposum buccae in the category of intermuscular fat masses together with the adipose tissue between the layers of the temporal fascia and the orbital fat. 267

The superficial temporal fat pad and its ramifications for temporalis muscle construction in facial approximation

“…While the former justification might be true the second seems unlikely. For example, the buccal fat pad which serves mechanical purposes is widely known to be resilient to changing environmental conditions even in extreme cases of malnutrition [16,[24][25][26][27][28]. Indeed, the buccal fat pad also extends into the temporal region as the deep temporal fat pad, and is located just superficial to the temporalis muscle giving it some import for prediction of this area of the face.…”

The use of buccal fat pad (BFP) as a pedicled graft in cleft palate surgery

“…Despite being mentioned by Heister in 1732 and Winslow in 1753 and being described by BICHAT in 1802 3 , for a long time there was no detailed anatomical description of the BFP in the literature. SCAMMON 21 first mentioned its anatomy briefly, followed by GAUGHRAN 8 and more detailed accounts followed by TIDEMAN et al 26 , STUZIN et al 25 and DUBIN et al 6 . They found the central body of the BFP situated close to and above the parotid duct on the anterior border of the masseter muscle extending deeply to the posterior maxilla between the buccinator muscle medially and the mandibular ramus laterally.…”

Pedicled BFP for closure of oro-antral fistula revisited

“…Scammon first described the anatomy of the BFP, followed by Goughran [7]. Anatomically, the BFP is described as containing a central body and four extensions.…”

“…Local flaps like buccal flaps, palatal flaps and combination of these flaps; distant flaps like tongue and nasolabial flaps; grafts made from bone, metal or plastic have been described with variable results [6]. Buccal fat pad (BFP), has been increasingly used for the reconstruction of intraoral defects [4,7] since the procedure was first described by Egyedi in 1977. He used it as a pedicled graft for closure of post surgical maxillary defects [5].…”

“…Scammon was the first to describe the anatomy of BFP [7]. Neder reported the use of BFP as a free graft for reconstruction of defects within the oral cavity.…”