Greater palatine nerve

The greater palatine nerve (anterior palatine nerve) is a branch of the pterygopalatine ganglion that carries both general sensory fibres from the maxillary nerve and parasympathetic fibers from the nerve of the pterygoid canal. It 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.

Greater palatine nerve
The sphenopalatine ganglion and its branches. (Anterior palatine at bottom center)
Details
From	pterygopalatine ganglion
Identifiers
Latin	nervus palatinus major, nervus palatinus anterior
TA	A14.2.01.045
FMA	52802
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy

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 lateral 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.

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 893 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

External links

• lesson9 at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University)
• cranialnerves at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) (V)
• MedEd at Loyola GrossAnatomy/h_n/cn/cn1/cnb2.htm
• "Anatomy diagram: 05287.011-1". Roche Lexicon - illustrated navigator. Elsevier. Archived from the original on 2013-04-22.
• Diagram at adi-visuals.com