After exiting the stylomastoid foramen, the facial nerve is entirely motor. It gives off the posterior auricular nerve and branches to the posterior belly of digastric and stylohyoid before entering the substance of the parotid gland.

It divides into five major branches within the parotid gland.

From superior to inferior, these are the:

• Temporal branch supplying the extrinsic ear muscles, occipitofrontalis and orbicularis oculi
• Zygomatic branch supplying orbicularis oculi
• Buccal branch supplying buccinator and the lip muscles
• Mandibular branch supplying the muscles of the lower lip and chin
• Cervical branch supplying platysma.

Though it passes through the parotid, the facial nerve does not innervate this gland. This is the responsibility of the glossopharyngeal nerve.