Anatom3DLeft tensor veli palatini
Musculus tensor veli palatini sinister · Levý napínač měkkého patra
Muscles
Looks like
A thin muscle whose tendon hooks around a small bony pulley at the back of the palate to fan into the soft palate.
What it does
Tightens the soft palate and opens the ear (Eustachian) tube when swallowing or yawning, balancing ear pressure.
Keeping it well
Powered by a branch of the trigeminal nerve. Poor tube opening causes blocked ears and fluid behind the eardrum, common in children.
Related conditions
- 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge)
- Bad breath (halitosis)
- Botulism
- Burning mouth syndrome
- Cleft lip and palate
- Fibromyalgia
- Frailty & falls in older age
- Hand, foot and mouth disease
- Heat exhaustion & heatstroke
- Lichen planus
- Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
- Mouth ulcers (aphthous stomatitis)
- Muscular dystrophy
- Obstructive sleep apnoea
- Pemphigus vulgaris
- Polymyalgia rheumatica
- Rhabdomyolysis
- Sarcoma
- Sarcopenia
- Stevens–Johnson syndrome / toxic epidermal necrolysis
- Tetanus