Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Palate

The roof of the mouth and floor of the nasal cavity: a bony hard palate in front and a mobile soft palate behind, ending in the uvula.

Key points

• Hard (maxillae + palatine bones) + soft palate (uvula).
• All soft palate muscles = vagus, except tensor veli palatini (V3).
• Raised to close the nasopharynx in swallowing.
• Palatal processes (maxillary) + primitive palate (frontonasal).
• Cleft palate: failed fusion.
• Hard palate: keratinized. Soft palate: nonkeratinized. Nasal side: respiratory epithelium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Action · Blood supply · Nerve supply · Lymph drainage · Histology · Development

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1735–1740
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 11, PDF pp. 146, 157–160
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 16, PDF p. 285

More from the head and neck

• Palatine tonsil
• Palatopharyngeus
• Parathyroid glands
• Parietal bone
• Parietal lobe
• Parotid gland
• Pharyngeal constrictors
• Pharynx
• Phrenic nerve
• Pineal body
• Piriform cortex
• Pituitary gland

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