What are the muscles of the soft palate?

The muscles that make up the soft palate include the palatoglossus, palatopharyngeus, tensor veli palatini, musculus uvulae, and levator veli palatini muscles. The tensor veli palatini muscle attaches to the palatine aponeurosis from its origin at the medial pterygoid plate of the sphenoid.

What is hard soft palate?

The roof of the mouth is known as the palate. The hard palate is the front part of the roof of the mouth, and the soft palate is the back part.

What is the main function of soft palate?

The soft palate is continuous with the hard palate, which forms in the anterior roof of the mouth. The soft palate plays an essential role in blocking food and other substances from entering the nasal passages during swallowing and is important in the formation of certain sounds in speech production.

What muscle elevates and retracts soft palate?

The tensor palatini tenses and flattens the soft palate by pulling laterally. The levator palatini originates at the temporal bone and the middle of the eustachian tube and inserts into the soft palate lateral to the uvula. Contraction of the levator palatini elevates and retracts the soft palate.

What is the two major muscles of the soft palate?

Muscles of the soft palate The palatopharyngeus and tensor veli palatini muscles produce the tension of the soft palate during swallowing.

Is soft palate part of throat?

Throat anatomy The oropharynx includes your tonsils and the bands of tissue around the tonsils, the soft part of the roof of the mouth (soft palate), the back third of the tongue, and the rear wall of the throat. As you continue down the oropharynx, you reach the laryngopharynx, the space where food and air pass.

What is the difference between hard and soft palate?

How does the soft palate work?

The soft palate is moveable, consisting of muscle fibers sheathed in mucous membrane. It is responsible for closing off the nasal passages during the act of swallowing, and also for closing off the airway. During sneezing, it protects the nasal passage by diverting a portion of the excreted substance to the mouth.

What sounds elevate soft palate?

Speech. A speech sound made with the middle part of the tongue (dorsum) touching the soft palate is known as a velar consonant. It is possible for the soft palate to retract and elevate during speech to separate the oral cavity (mouth) from the nasal cavity in order to produce the oral speech sounds.