Soft palate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Soft palate | |
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| Lateral wall of nasal cavity. (Soft palate visible in lower right) | |
| Latin | palatum molle, velum palatinum |
| Gray's | subject #242 1112 |
| Artery | lesser palatine arteries, ascending palatine artery |
| Nerve | pharyngeal branch of vagus nerve, medial pterygoid nerve |
| MeSH | Soft+Palate |
| Dorlands/Elsevier | p_02/12607540 |
The soft palate (or velum, or muscular palate) is the soft tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate at the front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone.
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[edit] Function
It is movable, consisting of muscle fibers sheathed in mucous membrane, and is responsible for closing off the nasal passages during the act of swallowing.
The soft palate's motion during breathing is responsible for the sound of snoring. Touching the soft palate evokes a strong gag response in most people.
The soft palate also functions during speech to separate the oral cavity (mouth) from the nose, in order to produce the oral speech sounds. If this separation is incomplete, air escapes through the nose during speech and the speech is perceived as hypernasal.
[edit] Muscles of soft palate
[edit] Additional images
 Soft palate without tonsils (after tonsillectomy) |
 Mouth (oral cavity) |
 Mouth |
 Sagittal section of nose mouth, pharynx, and larynx. |
 The mouth cavity. The cheeks have been slit transversely and the tongue pulled forward. |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- FPnotebook DEN4
- Image at WebMD
- SUNY Figs 34:01-03 - "Diagram of the regions of the oral cavity."
- Dictionary at eMedicine Soft+palate
