Quick Facts
Location: Viscerocranium.
Bone Type: Irregular bone.
Key Features: Medial and lateral surfaces, superior and inferior borders, and lacrimal, maxillary, and ethmoidal processes.
Articulates With: Lacrimal, ethmoid, and palatine bones, and maxilla.
Arterial Supply: Posterior lateral nasal, facial, and maxillary arteries.
Related parts of the anatomy
Key Features & Anatomical Relations
The inferior nasal conchae (or inferior nasal turbinates) are a pair of small, curved, bony plates found on lateral walls of each nasal cavity. They are classified as irregular bones and contribute to the formation of the viscerocranium. Each inferior nasal concha includes the following bony features:
- surfaces: medial and lateral surfaces, and superior and inferior borders;
- landmarks: lacrimal, maxillary, and ethmoidal processes.
More information regarding these bony features can be found in the Surfaces and Landmarks tabs for this bone.
On its corresponding side, each inferior nasal concha is located:
- anterosuperior to a palatine bone;
- inferior to lacrimal and ethmoid bones;
- medial to a maxilla;
- lateral to the vomer.
Each inferior nasal concha articulates with the:
- lacrimal bone at a lacrimoconchal suture;
- palatine bone;
- ethmoid bone;
- maxilla.
Ossification
Ossification of each inferior nasal concha occurs at one ossification center, which appears in utero during the fifth month (Standring, 2016).
Variations
In some individuals:
- the shape of the inferior nasal concha can vary;
- the inferior nasal concha may be absent (Tubbs, Shoja and Loukas, 2016).
List of Clinical Correlates
- Fracture of inferior nasal concha
- Hypoplasia of inferior nasal concha
References
Standring, S. (2016) Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice. Gray's Anatomy Series 41st edn.: Elsevier Limited.
Tubbs, R. S., Shoja, M. M. and Loukas, M. (2016) Bergman's Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Human Anatomic Variation. Wiley.
