Greater palatine foramen

Greater palatine foramen
Permanent teeth of upper dental arch, seen from below. (Greater palatine foramen labeled at lower right.)
Base of skull. Inferior surface.
Details
Identifiers
Latin	foramen palatinum majus
Dorlands /Elsevier	f_12/12373477
TA	A02.1.00.058
FMA	53173
Anatomical terminology []

At either posterior angle of the hard palate is the greater palatine foramen, for the transmission of the descending palatine vessels and greater palatine nerve; and running anteriorly (forward) and medially (towards the center-line) from it is a groove, for the same vessels and nerve.

The greater palatine foramen (GPF) is related to the upper 3rd molar tooth in most of the skulls (55%), 2nd molar in (12%), between the 2nd and 3rd molar in (19%) and retromolar in (14%). The shape of the foramen is elongated antero-posteriorly; however, an unusually crescent shaped foramen is rare.

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