The term anatomy technically refers to the study of the structure of living organisms, at macroscopic and microscopic scale.
A clear hint as to why we have a whole section of the website dedicated to anatomy is found in the Greek origins of the word anatomy, literally meaning dissection. Clearly, understanding conditions and surgical treatment options (or lack of those) critically depends on knowledge about the structure, and thus the functioning, of the human body. Anatomy (the study of structure) and pathology (the study of diseases) are the building blocks of surgery.
Maxillofacial and head & neck surgery is no exception to this rule, quite the opposite. No other region of the body is so densely packed with structures and functions as is the head & neck region. In addition, reconstructive maxillofacial surgery makes use of donor sites in other body regions.
The evolution of humankind is a slow process. Accordingly, there are numerous established textbooks on human anatomy that will not be outdated any time soon. There is little gain from adding to (and duplicating) some of the existing written and often very beautifully illustrated material, some examples are listed in the further-reading section. Instead, for the purposes of this website we are going to demonstrate some of the anatomy aspects most relevant in maxillofacial and head & neck surgery in short video clips, using anatomical models.