Palatine nerves

Nerve: Palatine nerves
The sphenopalatine ganglion and its branches. (Anterior palatine at bottom right, middle palatine at bottom center, and posterior palatine at bottom right.)
Latin	nervi palatini
Gray's	subject #200 893
Dorlands / Elsevier	n_05/12566391

The palatine nerves (descending branches) are distributed to the roof of the mouth, soft palate, tonsil, and lining membrane of the nasal cavity.

Most of their fibers are derived from the sphenopalatine branches of the maxillary nerve.

In older texts, they are usually categorized as three in number: anterior, middle, and posterior. (In newer texts, and in Terminologia anatomica, they are broken down into "greater palatine nerve" and "lesser palatine nerve".)

External links

• Norman/Georgetown lesson9
• MedEd at Loyola GrossAnatomy/h_n/cn/cn1/cnb2.htm
• greater+palatine+nerve at eMedicine Dictionary
• lesser+palatine+nerves at eMedicine Dictionary
• 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 As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated.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.