SOFT PALATE

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.

Contents

Function

Muscles of soft palate

Additional images

See also

External links

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.

Muscles of soft palate

'Muscle'	'Action'	'Nerve'
levator veli palatini	deglutition	vagus
tensor veli palatini	deglutition	mandibular nerve
palatoglossus	respiration	vagus
palatopharyngeus	respiration	vagus
musculus uvulae	moves uvula	vagus

Additional images

See also

★ Hard palate

★ Palate

★ Tonsil

★ Palatine uvula

External links

★

★ Image at WebMD

★ - "Diagram of the regions of the oral cavity."

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