In facial anatomy, the modiolus is a dense, compact, mobile, fibromuscular tissue mass of facial muscles formed by the interlacing of a number of muscles just lateral to the angle of the mouth opposite the second upper premolar tooth.

There are no precise histological boundaries because the modiolus is an irregular zone where dense, compact, interlacing tissue grades into the stems of individually recognizable muscles. It is contributed to by at least nine muscles: orbicularis oris, buccinator,