Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The incisive foramen is a funnel-shaped opening in the bone of the oral hard palate representing the inferior termination of the incisive canal. [citation needed] An oral prominence - the incisive papilla - overlies the incisive fossa. [1] The incisive foramen is situated immediately behind the incisor teeth, and in between the two premaxillae.
The two incisive canals usually (in 60% of individuals) have a characteristic Y-shaped or V-shaped morphology: above, each incisive canal opens into the nasal cavity on either side of the nasal septum as the nasal foramina; below, the two incisive canals converge medially to open into the oral cavity at midline at the incisive fossa [1] as several incisive foramina.
It is perforated by numerous foramina for the passage of the nutrient vessels; is channelled at the back part of its lateral border by a groove, sometimes a canal, for the transmission of the descending palatine vessels and the anterior palatine nerve from the spheno-palatine ganglion; and presents little depressions for the lodgement of the palatine glands.
A smaller opening nearby, the lesser palatine foramen, transmits the lesser palatine nerve and blood vessels to the soft palate and tonsils. Both foramina are openings of the pterygopalatine canal that carries the descending palatine nerves and blood vessels from the pterygopalatine fossa to the palate. [3]
The anterior part of the lateral surface is rough, for articulation with the tuberosity of the maxilla; its posterior part consists of a smooth triangular area which appears, in the articulated skull, between the tuberosity of the maxilla and the lower part of the lateral pterygoid plate, and completes the lower part of the infratemporal fossa.
The greater palatine canal starts on the inferior aspect of the pterygopalatine fossa. It goes through the maxilla and palatine bones to reach the palate, ending at the greater palatine foramen. From this canal, accessory canals branch off; these are known as the lesser palatine canals.
The orbital process of the palatine bone is placed on a higher level than the sphenoidal, and is directed upward and lateralward from the front of the vertical part, to which it is connected by a constricted neck.
The inferior surface, slightly concave and rough, forms, with the corresponding surface of the opposite bone, the posterior fourth of the hard palate. Near its posterior margin may be seen a more or less marked transverse ridge for the attachment of part of the aponeurosis of the tensor veli palatini.