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submental

submental

1 8.2
Under the chin below the lower jaw
  • adjective
  • /sʌbˈmɛntəl/
  • Specialized
: submental
  • Conrad et al. applied ePTFE to the submental area as a suspension sling to support and aesthetically contour the submental area during rhytidectomy, with no complications and high patient satisfaction.
  • submental muscle
  • submental area
  • submental region

Examples

  • Most patients experienced a spread of infection in the submental, submandibular, sublingual, retropharyngeal, and parapharyngeal spaces.

    Academic text (2010)
  • It's submental.

  • Well, you'd have to be submental not to.

  • Minimal edema of the submental and submandibular areas of the neck was noted.

    Academic text (2004)
  • I think you and your ilk are scum. Mark K is a submental lunatic, and you

    Blog text (27)
  • She had experienced hemorrhaging in the oral cavity, and a foul-smelling drainage exuded from cutaneous fistulae in the left submental area.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Conrad et al. applied ePTFE to the submental area as a suspension sling to support and aesthetically contour the submental area during rhytidectomy, with no complications and high patient satisfaction.

    Academic text (1995)
  • The identification of the IC onset was guided by the acoustic signal sampled from the contact throat microphone and observation of increased submental muscle activity from the sEMG recording (see Figure 1).

    Academic text (2011)
  • Computed tomography (CT) of the head and neck, with and without contrast, detected an increased amount of subcutaneous fatty stranding at the submental and neck regions, a finding compatible with cellulitis (figure 1).

    Academic text (2003)
  • The doctor examined the submental region for any signs of swelling.

Surface Forms

submental positive

Morphology

submental = mental (opaque) = sub + mental

Although formed by the productive prefix 'sub-' plus 'mental', learners will usually interpret 'mental' as 'relating to the mind' and so are unlikely to infer the anatomical meaning 'beneath the chin'.

Etymology

Submental combines sub- meaning 'under' (as in submarine) and mental from an old Latin word for 'chin', not 'mind'. So, submental means 'under the chin' and is used to describe something located beneath the lower jaw.