ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to the bones of the skull in general and to the sphenoid bone in particular; other skull bones are described in detail in the relevant chapters.
The skull contains 28 separate bones. A working knowledge of their normal and variant anatomy is essential for the effective surgical treatment of disease and trauma in the head and neck. The relative proportions of the facial and cranial skeletons change over time, most particularly during the period from early childhood to the end of adolescence (Figure 30.1). To appreciate the impact of the rapid growth and expansion of the brain, the pneumatization of the paranasal and mastoid air sinuses and the eruption of occluding primary and secondary dentitions on these proportions, a chronological series of dried skulls and clinical images from infancy to the post-synostotic state should be examined. No site in the body provides a
more eloquent demonstration of the way in which the normal processes of surface bone deposition and resorption influence growth and form.
