| Greater palatine foramen | |
|---|---|
| Permanent teeth of upper dental arch, seen from below. (Greater palatine foramen labeled at lower right.) | |
| Base of skull. Inferior surface. | |
| Latin | foramen palatinum majus |
| Gray's | subject #46 180 |
At either posterior angle of the hard palate is the greater palatine foramen, for the transmission of the descending palatine vessels and anterior palatine nerve; and running anteriorly (forward) and medially (towards the center-line) from it is a groove, for the same vessels and nerve.
The greater palatine foramen (GPF) is related to the upper 3rd molar tooth in most of the skulls (55%), 2nd molar in (12%), between the 2nd & 3rd molar in (19%) and retromolar in (14%). The shape of the foramen is elongated antero-posteriorly; however, an unusually crescent shaped foramen is rare.[1]
This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained within it may be outdated.