Definition
The palate is the structure between oral cavity and nasal cavity. It forms both the roof for the oral cavity and the floor for the nasal cavity.
Diseases of the palate
Pain in the palate can have many different causes and take on different forms. A precise diagnosis of the occurrence of palatal pain allows many conclusions to be drawn about more or less dangerous and acute causes. It is helpful to know, for example, whether the pain is limited to the hard or soft palate or diffuses everywhere and whether it starts rather acutely or dull over a long period of time.
The nature of the pain can also tell you a lot. Most people experience burning pain in the palate from time to time, for example after eating too hot food. In most cases, the pain, which is particularly acute and quickly onset, has rather harmless reasons.
The diseases affecting the palate are very diverse. They range from rather harmless complaints, such as: to manifested diseases in the true sense of the word: In the following, the complaints mentioned are explained.
- Pimples
- Red dots
- Bubbles
- Burns
- Abscess
- Swollen palate
- Inflamed palate
- Lip-Jaw-Palate-Cleft
- Tonsillitis
- Cancer of the palate
- Glossopharyngeal neuralgia.
Pimples on the palate can have various causes, but they are usually very harmless.
Mostly they are painless and disappear after a few days. The reason for this can be, as in the face, a blocked gland, an allergic reaction or too hot or too spicy food. If the pimple has a white coating and is painful, it is probably due to an aphthae.
If this occurs frequently, a doctor should be consulted. Red spots on the palate can have various causes, which can be very harmless, but can also have more serious reasons. Mostly these spots appear with other physical symptoms that make a diagnosis possible.
The simplest reason for a redness is a food intolerance with irritation of the mucous membrane. In addition, there may be an infection with a streptococcus bacterium, which is indicative of scarlet fever. Other possible causes are infection with the HI virus or the Eppstein-Barr virus, which causes the Pfeiffer ́sche glandular fever.
If the symptoms persist over a longer period of time, a doctor should be consulted. Blisters on the palate can have many different causes. Even a burn or injury to the mucous membrane caused by hot or spicy food can lead to them.
Infections with influenza viruses, HI-viruses or herpes and various dental diseases can also be a reason. This usually manifests itself in a burning sensation, bad breath or increased salivation. If blisters occur, daily oral hygiene should be paid special attention, as this is beneficial for wound healing and prevents further infections.
Various household remedies such as ice cubes for cooling can help to relieve pain. If the symptoms persist over a longer period of time, a doctor should be consulted. A burned palate is usually very harmless, but often very painful, as the mucous membranes are very sensitive to pain.
Hot food is the most common reason for this. There are various degrees of injury in burns. In most cases there is redness and swelling.
However, if the burn is more severe, there may be blisters and other signs of burning, which can be very schematic on the front palate. In these cases the palate usually heals on its own after a few days. The simplest method to quickly relieve the pain is cooling.
This can be done either by sucking an ice cube or by eating an ice cream. However, care should be taken not to cool the affected area directly. It is often helpful to eat cold buttermilk or cold yoghurt, as both are said to have anti-inflammatory, cooling and neutralizing effects on alkaline oral saliva.
If none of these products is available, rinsing the mouth with cold water will of course also help. To prevent further inflammation or reduce inflammatory reactions, honey or chamomile can be applied after the initial pain has passed.The honey can be smeared directly on the wound, because some of the ingredients have a promoting effect on the wound healing and prevent inflammations. The advantage of honey is that it is relatively sticky and can therefore remain on the wound for a long time.
Just like honey, chamomile tea has antibacterial and wound-healing effects. The advantage of chamomile tea is that it can be gargled as well as cooled. This relieves the pain that follows later and the effect is felt throughout the entire mouth.
Besides these measures, one can also take precautions to minimize the pain and the risk of inflammation. One should avoid eating foods with sharp edges like chips or salty foods like French fries. Abscesses on the palate can be caused by bacteria, fungi and clogged salivary glands.
Especially in the area of the palate, however, the occurrence of an abscess can also be related to the teeth. Abscesses manifest themselves as reddened, swollen, warm and usually very painful symptoms, which can significantly affect the intake of food. Surrounding tissue such as muscles, nerves or bones can also be affected if the infection spreads.
If left untreated, this can lead to a life-threatening spread that ends in sepsis. The therapy usually consists of splitting the abscess so that the pus can drain away and only in particularly severe forms with a tendency to spread is an additional antibiotic prescribed. Swelling of the palate is one of the symptoms of an existing inflammation.
Since the mouth and palate have essential functions in the chewing and swallowing process, but also in voice formation, even slight changes in the proportions, for example swelling, can cause restrictions in everyday life. Nearly all of the causes of pain and inflammation in the palate mentioned above can also cause swelling. In the context of any inflammation of the palate due to burns, injuries, allergic reactions, bacterial, viral and fungal infestation, but also tumors themselves, swellings of varying degrees occur.
It is noticeable, for example, in inflammatory swollen tonsils, which cause pain when swallowed. The swollen tonsils partially obstruct access to the esophagus and make every swallowing process painful. Allergic reactions can also be dangerous.
These are triggered either seasonally, for example by pollen, or by food such as nuts or fruit. Depending on the severity of the allergic reaction, it can range from a neck scratch with slight swelling to massive, painful swelling that radiates into the ear canals and causes breathing and swallowing difficulties. Depending on the cause, the swelling of the palate can be treated.
If there are bacterial infections, the doctor can prescribe antibiotic therapy for one to two weeks. In case of allergic reactions, anti-allergic medication can help to alleviate the symptoms. In the case of burns and injuries, the body normally heals itself.
At best, it is best not to irritate the palate with hot, dry or strongly seasoned food. In the case of burns, it may be useful to cool the affected area, for example by sucking an ice cube. If the swelling persists for many days, it is advisable to consult a doctor.
swollen palateThe term inflammation is very unspecific and can take on a variety of forms. Inflammation can be identified by the 5 main signs of inflammation: Pain (“dolor”), warming (“calor”), redness (“rubor”), swelling (“tumor”) and reduced function (“functio laesa”). The most common form is burning, often caused by food that is too hot.
Small injuries of the mucous membrane can also be the cause. In young people this often happens through cuts from braces. If there is a wound in the mucous membrane of the mouth, a path is basically cleared through which foreign pathogens can penetrate the tissue and cause an inflammation.
In most cases these are bacteria, but viruses and fungi can also cause inflammation of the palate. You can find more information here: Inflammation of the palate Especially the tonsils are susceptible to droplet infections. In addition to redness and swelling of the tonsils, fever, sore throat and exhaustion are also common.
If bacteria are the cause of the inflammation, yellowish to white pus often forms, which can be seen from the outside and is highly contagious.Scratching pain is particularly common in allergic reactions. Most often they are triggered by pollen or incompatible foods. Many people already feel uncomfortable when eating kiwi or pineapple, as the palate then appears red and itches.
Allergy medications are widespread and available everywhere and can be very useful for known allergies. During development, the palate is formed by the merging of the two upper jaw systems (Sutura palatina mediana) and the Os incisivum. However, this occlusion may be incomplete and congenital malformations may occur.
This can be a cleft palate (palatoschisis), a cleft uvula (uvula bifida) or even a cleft lip and palate (cheilognathopalatoschisis). Earlier names were also cleft palate and cleft lip and palate, respectively, cleft cleft lip and cleft palate. These terms are now obsolete.
A cleft lip and palate occurs more frequently than the isolated forms of cleft palate or lip. A cleft palate can affect both hard and soft palates. Swallowing and thus food intake and speaking (articulation of some sounds) is impaired.
A cleft palate also increases the risk of some infections (because the individual cavities in the head are not closed to each other). These include, for example, middle ear infections or respiratory tract infections (of the nasal and paranasal sinuses or throat). Infants in particular can no longer be breastfed because the suction effect is lost.
This can be temporarily treated at the dentist with a plastic palatal plate. In the case of a cleft lip and palate, the cleft is even more pronounced and also affects the upper jaw and lip. A uvula bifida is a cleft of the uvula.
It can therefore be counted as the easiest form of cleft palate. An operation is necessary to treat the cleft palate. In this operation the cleft is corrected and closed.
Causes for such a malformation are genetic changes. Also factors during pregnancy such as smoking, drug and alcohol consumption by the mother or a lack of nutrients and ionizing radiation are discussed as causes for these genetic defects. Tonsillitis is an infectious disease that is often caused by viruses and less frequently by bacteria.
Many of these bacteria belong to the normal pharyngeal flora, but they can cause the disease if the immune system is weak or if there are superficial injuries. It manifests itself by swelling and redness of one or both palatal tonsils, a purulent coating, difficulty swallowing and swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck and lower jaw. Fever, headache and generalized fatigue are also common accompanying symptoms.
If bacterially caused tonsillitis is accompanied by a scattering of the pathogens in the blood, there is even danger to life. This can lead to sepsis, inflammation of the heart and other organs. For this reason, a physician should be consulted if palatine tonsillitis is suspected.
One can divide the infection into an acute and a chronic variant according to the course of the disease. The therapy is based on this. In the case of acute palatine tonsillitis, great importance is attached to fighting the pathogen and alleviating pain.
If the course of the disease is chronic, the palatine tonsils can also be surgically removed. This might also be of interest to you: How to treat a tonsillitis palatine cancer is a malignant and frequently occurring disease of the oral cavity. This type of cancer occurs more than twice as frequently in men than in women.
This usually occurs in the fifth decade of life. The tumors usually develop from the cells of the mucous membrane. The survival rate is on average about 50%.
However, the individual prognosis strongly depends on the stage at which the cancer is detected, which is why early detection is essential. For this reason, difficult-to-heal wounds and surface changes should be checked early. Other signs of palatal cancer can include hoarseness, bad breath, irritable cough and sore throat, which are often misinterpreted.
Several factors can be the cause of new cancer formation. These include, to a significant extent, smoking and regular alcohol consumption, lack of oral hygiene and the human papilloma virus. This virus is usually transmitted through contact with the skin or mucous membranes.
This can happen during sex as well as through sharing towels and toothbrushes.In addition, some people have a genetic predisposition to it. Depending on the stage, palate cancer is treated either by surgical removal and subsequent radiotherapy or by a combination of both with chemotherapy. Glosspharyngeal neuralgia is a painful but rather rare disease. This describes an excessive sensitivity of the cranial nerve, which is responsible for the perception of touch and taste in the oral cavity. Even light touching can lead to sharp, stabbing pain in severe cases.
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