There are about thirty muscles associated with facial expression (controlling the |eyes|, face, and |mouth|). These muscles take their origin from the bones of the facial skeleton and attach to the soft tissues of the facial skin, such as the eyelids, |nose|, cheeks, and |lips|. There are seventeen smiling muscles in all. Some muscles open these orifices wide; others narrow or close them. All the muscles of the face are supplied by branches of two main ~nerves~, the right and left facial ~nerves~, which arise from the |brain| stem. These branches of the facial ~nerve~ control the muscle movements of the face.
