palatine bone

The palatine bones are paired L-shaped bones joined at the midline. They form the hard palate with the maxillary bones. They also form part of the floor of the nasal cavity (the hard palate separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity).

Gross anatomy

The palatine bones are located at the back of the nasal cavity, between the maxillae and the sphenoid. Each bone consists of a horizontal and perpendicular plate forming an L-shape. There are three processes, the pyramidal, orbital and sphenoidal.

They make structural contributions to the hard palate, nasal cavity, orbital floor and pterygopalatine fossa.

Articulations

• with the palatine process of the maxilla anteriorly forming the transverse palatine suture
• with its opposite counterpart in the midline
• with the vomer
• with the inferior concha
• with both the body and the medial pterygoid plate of the sphenoid
• with the ethmoid

Attachments

• tensor palati to the posterior border of the horizontal plate
• muscle of the uvula to the nasal spine of the horizontal plate
• superficial head of the medial pterygoid muscle to the pyramidal process

Foramina

• greater palatine foramen
  • transmits the greater palatine vessels and nerve from the pterygopalatine fossa to the oral cavity
  • formed by the greater palatine groove and converted to a canal by articulation with the maxilla
• lesser palatine foramen
  • transmits the lesser palatine nerves and vessels
• sphenopalatine foramen
  • formed by the sphenopalatine notch of the palatine bone articulating with the body of the sphenoid
  • connects the pterygopalatine fossa to the nasal cavity and transmits the sphenopalatine artery and vein, nasopalatine nerve and posterior superior nasal nerves

Ossification

• intramembranous ossification, appears eighth week in utero
• at birth the horizontal and perpendicular plates are of equal size

Siehe auch:

• Schädel

und weiter:

• skull