The soft palate is the mobile muscular flap hanging from the back edge of the hard palate. It is built on the palatine aponeurosis and moved by five paired muscles, with the uvula hanging from its free border. Laterally it continues down into the palatoglossal and palatopharyngeal arches that frame the tonsils.
| Location | Posterior third of the roof of the mouth, attached to the posterior edge of the hard palate and separating the nasopharynx from the oropharynx |
|---|---|
| Parts |
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| Nerve Supply | Lesser palatine nerves, CN V2 (sensory); Pharyngeal plexus, vagus nerve (motor to most muscles); Mandibular nerve, CN V3 (motor to tensor veli palatini); Glossopharyngeal nerve (sensory) |
| Blood Supply | Lesser palatine arteries; Ascending palatine artery (from the facial artery); Palatine branch of the ascending pharyngeal artery |
| Venous drainage |
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| Lymphatic drainage |
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Closes off the nasopharynx during swallowing, speech and blowing, and with the tongue seals the back of the mouth while food is chewed.
During swallowing and speech the soft palate rises to seal off the nasopharynx; failure of this seal (velopharyngeal insufficiency) causes nasal speech and nasal regurgitation of fluids. All its muscles are supplied by the vagus through the pharyngeal plexus except tensor veli palatini (mandibular nerve), so a vagus lesion makes the palate sag on the affected side. A floppy, long soft palate contributes to snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea.
Congenital failure of the palatal shelves to fuse, causing feeding difficulty, nasal speech and middle ear effusions from poor auditory tube function.
Inadequate closure between the soft palate and pharyngeal wall, producing hypernasal speech and nasal escape of air or fluid.
Repeated upper airway collapse during sleep, often at the level of the soft palate, causing snoring, pauses in breathing and daytime sleepiness.
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