Orbit

Eye socket: rims, walls, lids, and looksmaxxing orbital jargon

Orbit

Orbit, Gray's Anatomy (PD)
Field	Anatomy
Also known as	eye socket, orbital cavity, periorbita

The orbit is the bony socket of the eye. Looksmaxxing’s hunter-eye / prey-eye talk is orbital anatomy plus lids: how deep the globe sits, how the rims project, how the palpebral fissure is shaped, and how much lid skin and sclera show. Wikipedia’s looksmaxxing article already treats “hunter eyes” as positive canthal tilt, little upper-eyelid exposure, and low-set brows.

This page is the jargon map. It is not an oculoplastic how-to.

Walls (the “interior”)

The cavity is a pyramid.

• Roof (superior) — orbital plate of the frontal bone and lesser wing of sphenoid. Front edge is the supraorbital rim. Supraorbital notch/foramen carries nerve.
• Floor (inferior) — orbital plate of maxilla plus zygomatic. Front edge is the infraorbital rim. Infraorbital groove/canal/foramen. Thinnest floor = blowout-fracture territory, not a rating drill.
• Lateral wall — zygomatic + greater wing of sphenoid. Strongest wall.
• Medial wall — maxilla, lacrimal, ethmoid (lamina papyracea), sphenoid. Paper-thin ethmoid.

Aperture is the opening you photograph. Depth is how far the globe sits behind the rims. Deep-set = rims cast shadow (hunter eyes talk). Prominent globe / negative vector = the opposite.

Rims

• Supraorbital rim — upper bony eyelid; brow ridge lives on it.
• Infraorbital rim — lower bony eyelid; “support” vs trough.
• Lateral orbital rim — outer corner; canthal tendon attaches.
• Medial orbital rim — inner corner / lacrimal fossa.

Soft tissue the forums mix into “orbit”

• Palpebral fissure — the open eye; almond vs round.
• Medial and lateral canthi — corners. Canthal tilt is their relative height.
• Upper eyelid exposure — visible skin between lashes and brow fold.
• Scleral show — white showing under the iris.
• Upper and lower orbital fat pads — bags vs hollow.
• Tear trough / nasojugal groove.
• Lacrimal apparatus — not a PSL metric.

Vector

Orbital vector (oculoplastic): where the globe sits relative to the inferior rim. A negative vector (globe in front of rim) is the anatomy behind many “tired eyes,” scleral show, and why some lower-lid surgery fails. Looksmaxxing borrowed the phrase for “no infraorbital support.”

What does not change the socket

Rubbing the orbital area, “orbitsmashing,” and massage guns. Bone of the adult orbit is not a chewing muscle. Lateral canthoplasty / canthopexy and rim implants are named operations with named risks (lid retraction). See infraorbital implant and surgical pitfalls.

Gallery

• 
  Gray 188 — orbit
• 
  Gray 189 — left infratemporal fossa
• 
  Gray 190 — skull from the front
• 
  Gray 191 — horizontal section, nasal and orbital cavities
• 
  Gray 379 — coronal section of the head (orbits emptied)
• 
  Infraorbital margin
• 
  Canthus
• 
  Eyelids / palpebral apparatus

Images from Wikimedia Commons via InstantCommons.

See also

• Hunter eyes
• Prey eyes
• Canthal tilt
• Brow ridge
• Looksmaxxing glossary