Cavities of the vocal tract

Question 1

What are the cavities of the vocal tract?

Answer 1

nasal, pharyngeal, oral, and buccal

Question 2

What is the hard roof of the mouth?

Answer 2

hard palate

Question 3

What is the median raphe?

Answer 3

Divides the hard palate in half

Question 4

How far is the oral cavity?

Answer 4

From the front of the mouth’s opening to the back of faucial pillars

Question 5

What are the faucial pillars?

Answer 5

ridges in the oral cavity that separate it from the oropharynx; it marks the back end of the oral cavity

Question 6

What is the velum?

Answer 6

moveable muscle mass that separates the oral and nasal cavities

Question 7

What is the uvula?

Answer 7

the end of the velum

Question 8

What are between the anterior and posterior faucial pillars?

Answer 8

palatine tonsils

Question 9

What are the palatine tonsils?

Answer 9

masses of lymphoid tissues that extend into the lateral undersurface of the velum

Question 10

Where does the buccal cavity lie?

Answer 10

lateral to the oral cavitiy

Question 11

What is the buccal cavity?

Answer 11

space between the cheeks of the face and the teeth.

Question 12

Why does the buccal cavity matter?

Answer 12

plays an important role in oral resonance when the mandible in depressed to expose it; involved in high pressure consonant production; this area is the source of a lateral lisp

Question 13

What are the three main regions of the pharyngeal cavity?

Answer 13

laryngopharynx, oropharynx, and nasopharynx

Question 14

What is the pharyngeal cavity?

Answer 14

12 cm tube that separates the oropharynx from the nasopharynx; it is lined with muscle that helps with degluttition (swallowing) and with closing the velopharyngeal port. It goes from the vocal folds below to the nasal cavity above.

Question 15

Where is the nasopharynx located?

Answer 15

above the velum; it is bound anteriorly by the nasal chonae and posteriorly by the occipital bone’s pharyngeal protuberance

Question 16

Where is the laryngopharynx (hypopharynx) located?

Answer 16

bound posteriorly by the esophagus and anteriorly by the epiglottis

Question 17

Where is the oropharynx located?

Answer 17

posterior to the fauces above the hyoid bone and bounded above by the soft palate

Question 18

What are the nasal choanae?

Answer 18

funnel shapped channels found by the nasopharynx

Question 19

Where is the Eustachian tube?

Answer 19

lateral to the nasopharyngeal wall

Question 20

What does the Eustachian tube do?

Answer 20

It aerates the middle ear cavity

Question 21

What is the salpingopharyngeaus fold

Answer 21

ridge of tissue where the salpingopharyngeus muscles resides; it courses down the orifice of the eustachian tube.

Question 22

The ________ of the Eustachian tube is a bulge of tissue partially encircling its orifice

Answer 22

Torus tubarius

Question 23

What are the pharyngeal tonsils or adenoids?

Answer 23

mass of lymphoid tissue found in the nasopharynx that helps support velar function

Question 24

What happens when the pharyngeal tonsils are removed from a child due to a short or hypotrophied velum?

Answer 24

hypernasality

Question 25

What are the nasal cavities?

Answer 25

area produced by the paired maxillae, palatine, and nasal bones.

Question 26

What divides the nasal cavities?

Answer 26

The nasal septum

Question 27

What is the nasal septum made of?

Answer 27

vomer, perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone, and septal cartilage

Question 28

What is the purpose of the nasal cavity?

Answer 28

to humidify and warm air entering it; it sends air pollutants to the esophagus where it is swallowed up.

Question 29

The ______ mark the anterior boundaries of the nasal cavity whereas the ______ mark the posterior boundaries.

Answer 29

nares or nostrils; nasal chonae

Question 30

What forms the floor of the nasal cavity?

Answer 30

the palatine processes of the maxillae and the horizontal plate of the palatine bone