palate

(noun)

(Anatomy) The roof of the mouth; the uraniscus.

Related Terms

Examples of palate in the following topics:

  • Cleft Palate and Lip

    • Approximately 1 in 700 children are born with a cleft lip and/or a cleft palate.
    • Cleft palate is a condition in which the two plates of the skull that form the hard palate (roof of the mouth) are not completely joined .
    • The soft palate is cleft as well.
    • Palate cleft can occur as complete (soft and hard palate, possibly including a gap in the jaw) or incomplete (a 'hole' in the roof of the mouth, usually as a cleft soft palate).
    • When cleft palate occurs, the uvula is usually split.

  • Structures Used in Voice Production

    • Resonance: The structures of the upper respiratory tract—particularly the soft palate of the mouth, the nasopharynx, and the paranasal sinuses—resonate and amplify the vibration of the vocal folds, making the sound louder and changing its tone.
    • The soft palate further back on the roof of the mouth (velar).
    • Pre-palatal (front part of hard palate that arches upward), 7.
    • Palatal (hard palate), 8.
    • Velar (soft palate), 9.

  • Congenital Defects

    • An example of a birth defect is cleft palate .

  • Pharynx

    • It extends from the base of the skull to the upper surface of the soft palate.
    • It includes the space between the internal nares and the soft palate, and lies superior to the oral cavity.
    • the salpingopalatine fold, a smaller fold extending from the superior part of the torus to the palate
    • The superior wall consists of the inferior surface of the soft palate and the uvula.

  • Pharynx

    • It extends from the base of the skull to the upper surface of the soft palate above the oral cavity.
    • The salpingopalatine fold is a smaller fold extending from the superior part of the torus to the palate; it contains the levator veli palatini muscle.
    • The anterior wall of the oropharynx consists of the base of the tongue and the superior wall consists of the bottom surface of the soft palate and the uvula.

  • Marfan Syndrome

    • It may also affect the lungs, the eyes, the dural sac surrounding the spinal cord, the skeleton, and the hard palate of the mouth.
    • Other signs include abnormal joint flexibility, a high palate, flat feet, hammer toes, stooped shoulders, and unexplained stretch marks on the skin.

  • Localization of Pain

    • In an ice cream headache, known colloquially as brain freeze and medically as a cold-stimulus headache, the trigeminal nerve, shown in yellow, conducts signals from dilating blood vessels in the palate to the brain that interpret the pain as coming from the forehead.

  • Digestive Properties of the Stomach

    • This information is passed to the lateral hypothalamus and limbic system in the brain as a palatability signal through the vagus nerve.

  • Taste and Smell at Birth and in Old Age

    • Taste buds contain the receptors for taste and are located around the small structures (papillae) on the upper surface of the tongue, soft palate, upper esophagus, and epiglottis.

  • Root Canal Therapy

    • The double-headed arrow (bottom right) shows the extent of the abscess that surrounds the apex of the palatal root.