In this video, we're going to talk about the 1st structural class of joint in our lesson, which are the fibrous joints. As their name implies, the skeletal elements are going to be bound by collagen fibers of dense connective tissue. Recall, this is a type of fibrous connective tissue, or a type of connective tissue proper. The exact type of dense connective tissue used in these fibrous joints depends on the specific type of joint and its function. However, it's very often the case that dense irregular connective tissue is used in these fibrous joints.
We'll be able to see that as we move forward in our course and talk more about these fibrous joints. Recall that collagen fibers provide a lot of strength and the strength of these collagen fibers really makes these fibrous joints structurally stable. But recall that the stability of a joint comes at the cost of the mobility of the joint. These fibrous joints, although structurally stable, are going to have limited movement. And because they have limited movement, the fibrous joints are always going to be classified either as synarthroses, which are still or stationary joints that essentially allow for no movement and are generally classified as immovable joints.
Or the fibrous joints could be classified as amphiarthroses, which allow for a little movement or an average amount of movement. This is why we have the symbols for synarthroses and amphiarthroses here. And again, the symbol for synarthroses does not have that movement arrow going around it, which means that it allows for essentially no movement. Whereas the amphiarthroses symbol has one movement arrow going around it, which can remind you that it allows for just a little movement, or an average amount of movement. There are actually 3 types of fibrous joints, and they are sutures, gomphoses, and syndesmoses.
Moving forward in our course, we're going to talk about each of these 3 types of fibrous joints in their own separate videos, starting with the suture.