The palate forms the roof of the oral cavity proper, and consists of two portions, the anterior or hard palate and the posterior or soft palate. The hard palate is continuous in front and laterally with the alveolar processes of the maxilla, and gives attachment posteriorly to the soft palate. It separates the mouth from the nasal cavity. It is supported by the palatine process of the maxilla and the horizontal part of the palatine bone. The oral surface is concave from side to side, and also from before backward. It is covered by a thick, somewhat pale mucosa, which is firmly adherent to the periosteum through the submucosa. The submucosa contains numerous mucous glands. In the median line of the hard palate is a line or ridge, the raphe terminating anteriorly in the small incisive papilla, which corresponds in position to the bony incisive foramen. Anteriorly there occur four to six more or less distinct transverse ridges. Near the posterior margin of the hard palate there is on each side of the raphe a small pit, which is variable and inconstant. The soft palate separates the posterior portion of the mouth cavity from the nasal part of the pharynx. It is attached to the hard palate anteriorly and to the pharyngeal wall laterally. The posterior portion projects backward and downward into the pharynx. Its free margin presents a median conical projection, the uvula, and splits laterally on each side to form two folds, the palatine arches, between which is located the palatine tonsil. The soft palate is a fold of mucous membrane enclosing a fibrous aponeurosis, muscles, vessels, and nerves. It is marked in the middle line by a raphe indicating the line of junction of the two halves from which it was formed. The posterior layer of the mucous fold, which is directed toward the cavity of the pharynx, is continuous with the nasal mucous membrane; the anterior layer lies in the posterior boundary of the mouth and is continuous with the mucous membrane of the hard palate. It gives attachment to fibers of the levator veli palatini and the pharyngopalatinus (palatopharyngeus) and to the tendon of the tensor veli palatini.

Palatum

Palais

Gaumen