The Palate

Question 1

What is the soft palate?

Answer 1

soft tissue that forms the roof of the mouth

Question 2

What are the 4 bones of the hard palate?

Answer 2

• right and left maxilla
• right and left palatine bones

Question 3

What suture runs down the middle of the hard palate?

Answer 3

Median palatine suture

Question 4

What are the 2 plates of the sphenoid bone?

Answer 4

lateral and medial pterygoid plates

Question 5

What lies behind tooth 8?

Answer 5

maxillary tuberosity

Question 6

What foramen are present in the hard palate?

Answer 6

• incisive canal
• palatine foramina (greater and lesser)

Question 7

What nerves run through the palatine foramina?

Answer 7

branches of CN V2

Question 8

What type of epithelium makes the hard palate?

Answer 8

keratinised stratified squamous

Question 9

What epithelium makes the soft palate?

Answer 9

non-keratinised stratified squamous

Question 10

What is the mound of mucosa that overlies the incisive canal?

Answer 10

incisive papilla

Question 11

What is the function of palatal rugae?

Answer 11

mechanical breakdown of food

Question 12

What fuses the palatal shelves?

Answer 12

midline palatine raphe

Question 13

What are present in palatal mucosa?

Answer 13

palatine glands

Question 14

What is the cause of cleft palate?

Answer 14

defect with the formation of the soft palate - lateral palatine processes fail to fuse

Question 15

What does cleft palate result in?

Answer 15

no hard palate so can see up to nasal cavity

Question 16

What are 4 complications of cleft palate?

Answer 16

1. speech
2. dental health
3. feeding
4. hearing

Question 17

What arteries supply the palate?

Answer 17

Greater and lesser palatine arteries

Question 18

What nerves supply the palate?

Answer 18

• nasopalatine
• greater and lesser palatine

Question 19

What do the nerves of the palate form?

Answer 19

pterygopalatine ganglion

Question 20

What node drains the palatine tonsil?

Answer 20

Jugulo-digastric

Question 21

What 4 sets of lymph nodes drain the palate?

Answer 21

• retropharyngeal
• jugulo-digastric
• submandibular
• deep cervical

Question 22

What are the 5 pairs of muscles of the soft palate?

Answer 22

1. levator veli palatini
2. tensor veli palatini
3. musculus uvulae
4. palatoglossus
5. palatopharyngeal

Question 23

What supplies the muscles of the soft palate?

Answer 23

Vagus nerve CN X + Spinal Accessory nerve CN XI

EXCEPT tensor veli palatini (CN V3)

Question 24

What forms the palatine aponeurosis?

Answer 24

tendons of the tensor veli palatini

Question 25

Where does the tensor veli palatini attach?

Answer 25

superiorly to the sphenoid bone

Question 26

What does the tendon of the tensor veli palatini turn around ?

Answer 26

pterygoid hamulus

Question 27

What is the anatomical name of the auditory tube?

Answer 27

Eustachian tube

Question 28

What bone attaches the levator veli palatini?

Answer 28

petrous temporal bone

Question 29

How do you clinically test the vagus nerve?

Answer 29

say “Ahh”

if nerves are functioning the uvula should lift straight up the midline

If nerve pathology, the uvula will pull away from the non-functioning side

Question 30

What are the 3 functions of the soft palate as a trapdoor?

Answer 30

1. stops food entering nose during swallowing
2. directs air into nose or mouth during speech, sneezing, coughing and vomiting
3. closes off entrance into oropharynx during gag reflex