Cavities of the vocal tract Flashcards
What are the cavities of the vocal tract?
nasal, pharyngeal, oral, and buccal
What is the hard roof of the mouth?
hard palate
What is the median raphe?
Divides the hard palate in half
How far is the oral cavity?
From the front of the mouth’s opening to the back of faucial pillars
What are the faucial pillars?
ridges in the oral cavity that separate it from the oropharynx; it marks the back end of the oral cavity
What is the velum?
moveable muscle mass that separates the oral and nasal cavities
What is the uvula?
the end of the velum
What are between the anterior and posterior faucial pillars?
palatine tonsils
What are the palatine tonsils?
masses of lymphoid tissues that extend into the lateral undersurface of the velum
Where does the buccal cavity lie?
lateral to the oral cavitiy
What is the buccal cavity?
space between the cheeks of the face and the teeth.
Why does the buccal cavity matter?
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
What are the three main regions of the pharyngeal cavity?
laryngopharynx, oropharynx, and nasopharynx
What is the pharyngeal cavity?
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.
Where is the nasopharynx located?
above the velum; it is bound anteriorly by the nasal chonae and posteriorly by the occipital bone’s pharyngeal protuberance
Where is the laryngopharynx (hypopharynx) located?
bound posteriorly by the esophagus and anteriorly by the epiglottis
Where is the oropharynx located?
posterior to the fauces above the hyoid bone and bounded above by the soft palate
What are the nasal choanae?
funnel shapped channels found by the nasopharynx
Where is the Eustachian tube?
lateral to the nasopharyngeal wall
What does the Eustachian tube do?
It aerates the middle ear cavity
What is the salpingopharyngeaus fold
ridge of tissue where the salpingopharyngeus muscles resides; it courses down the orifice of the eustachian tube.
The ________ of the Eustachian tube is a bulge of tissue partially encircling its orifice
Torus tubarius
What are the pharyngeal tonsils or adenoids?
mass of lymphoid tissue found in the nasopharynx that helps support velar function
What happens when the pharyngeal tonsils are removed from a child due to a short or hypotrophied velum?
hypernasality
What are the nasal cavities?
area produced by the paired maxillae, palatine, and nasal bones.
What divides the nasal cavities?
The nasal septum
What is the nasal septum made of?
vomer, perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone, and septal cartilage
What is the purpose of the nasal cavity?
to humidify and warm air entering it; it sends air pollutants to the esophagus where it is swallowed up.
The ______ mark the anterior boundaries of the nasal cavity whereas the ______ mark the posterior boundaries.
nares or nostrils; nasal chonae
What forms the floor of the nasal cavity?
the palatine processes of the maxillae and the horizontal plate of the palatine bone
