Greater palatine nerve

Nerve: Greater palatine nerve
The sphenopalatine ganglion and its branches. (Anterior palatine at bottom right)
Latin	nervus palatinus major, nervus palatinus anterior
Gray's	subject #200 893
From	pterygopalatine ganglion
Dorlands / Elsevier	n_05/12566396

The greater palatine nerve (anterior palatine nerve) descends through the greater palatine canal, emerges upon the hard palate through the greater palatine foramen, and passes forward in a groove in the hard palate, nearly as far as the incisor teeth.

It supplies the gums, the mucous membrane and glands of the hard palate, and communicates in front with the terminal filaments of the nasopalatine nerve.

While in the pterygopalatine canal, it gives off posterior inferior nasal branches, which enter the nasal cavity through openings in the palatine bone, and ramify over the inferior nasal concha and middle and inferior meatuses; at its exit from the canal, a palatine branch is distributed to both surfaces of the soft palate.

External links

• Norman/Georgetown lesson9
• Norman/Georgetown cranialnerves (V)
• MedEd at Loyola GrossAnatomy/h_n/cn/cn1/cnb2.htm
• lesser+palatine+nerves at eMedicine Dictionary
• Roche Lexicon - illustrated navigator, at Elsevier 05287.011-1
• Diagram at adi-visuals.com

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated. Please edit the article if this is the case, and feel free to remove this notice when it is no longer relevant.