Anatomy
The orbita is the paired cavity that contains the eyeball and the appendages of the visual system. The bones of the skull are divided into the cranial skull and the facial skull. The facial skull comprises many small bones that form the fine structures of the face and give it its shape.
The eye socket is a pit about five centimetres deep, formed by seven different bones. The outer edges of the orbit are easily palpable. The palpable edges are formed centrally by the upper jaw bone, externally by the zygomatic bone and at the top by the frontal bone.
The orbit is a bony structure in which the eye is embedded for protection. It is pyramid-shaped and consists of the orbital roof, the orbital floor and two lateral boundaries. The orbital floor consists of three bones.
These include the upper jaw bone (maxilla), the palatine bone (Os palatinum) and the zygomatic bone (Os zygomaticum). The maxillary sinus is adjacent to the orbital floor. In addition, there is the infraorbital canalis in the floor of the orbit.
This is a small passage in the bone through which the artery, the vein and the nervus infraorbitalis run. These are responsible for the blood supply and sensitivity in the area between the eyelid and the upper lip. The eye socket (orbit) is a bony cavity that surrounds our eye.
It is formed by a total of seven bones. Belong to the orbital floor: Borders the orbit from above and is thus the orbit roof: Laterally, the orbit is supplemented by the: This bony protective structure for the eye contains numerous through-holes for various vessels and nerves. In addition, the eye cavity is filled with fatty and connective tissue, in which the eye and also other structures (e.g. lacrimal gland, eye muscles) are embedded. – Upper jaw bone (maxilla)
- Palatine bone (Os palatinum)
- Zygomatic bone (Os zygomaticum)
- Frontal bone (Os frontale)
- Lacrimal bone (Os lacrimale)
- Ethmoid bone (Os ethmoidale)
- Sphenoid bone (Os sphenoidale) added.
Function of the eye socket
Their main function is to protect the sensitive human visual system from external violence. The protruding bone edges are therefore the most common site of injury. The outer opening of the eye socket is filled by the eyeball and the appendages.
This is covered by the skin of the face and the eyelids, so that externally only a part of the white skin of the eye, the iris and the pupil can be seen. Inside the skull, the bony boundary of the eye socket tapers into a conical shape. Inside, only small holes and canals are found as accesses, in which, among other things, the optic nerve runs.
From the eyeball to the rear edge of the bony orbit, there are normally about six eye muscles that hold the eye in position and enable the eyeball to move. The lacrimal gland is located above the eye and slightly shifted outwards. Numerous nerves and blood vessels run within the orbit.
They supply the structures within the orbit, for example the eyeball and the lacrimal gland. Some of them also move into the central nasal cavity and supply it with blood and sensitive nerves. Individual branches also extend from the orbit to the front of the face and are responsible for the sensitive sensation from the upper lip to above the forehead. Losses of conduction paths within the orbit thus manifest themselves in different ways as loss of sensitivity in the face, as impaired vision or, for example, by seeing double images.