Fauces Health Dictionary

This is usually attributed to vibrations of the soft PALATE, but there is evidence that the main fault lies in the edge of the posterior pillars of the FAUCES which vibrate noisily. Mouth-breathing is necessary for snoring, but not all mouth-breathers snore. The principal cause is blockage of the nose, such as occurs during the course of the common cold or chronic nasal CATARRH; such blockage also occurs in some cases of deviation of the nasal SEPTUM or nasal polypi (see NOSE, DISORDERS OF). In children, mouth-breathing, with resulting snoring, is often due to enlarged TONSILS and adenoids. A further cause of snoring is loss of tone in the soft palate and surrounding tissues due to smoking, overwork, fatigue, obesity, and general poor health. One in eight people are said to snore regularly. The intensity, or loudness, of snoring is in the range of 40–69 decibels. (Pneumatic drills register between 70 and 90 decibels.) Bouts of snoring sometimes alternate with SLEEP APNOEAS.

Treatment therefore consists of the removal of any of these causes of mouth-breathing that may be present. Should this not succeed in preventing snoring, then measures should be taken to prevent the sufferer from sleeping lying on his or her back, as this is a habit strongly conducive to snoring. Simple measures include sleeping with several pillows, so that the head is raised quite considerably when asleep; alternatively, a small pillow may be put under the nape of the neck. If all these measures fail it may be worth trying the traditional method of sewing a hairbrush, or some other hard object such as a stone, into the back of the snorer’s pyjamas. Thus, if they turn on their back, they are quickly awakened. (See also STERTOR.)... snoring

The tongue is made up of several muscles, is richly supplied with blood vessels and nerves, and is covered by highly specialised MUCOUS MEMBRANE. It consists of a free part known as the tip, a body, and a hinder ?xed part or root. The under-surface lies upon the ?oor of the mouth, whilst the upper surface is curved from side to side, and still more from before backwards so as to adapt it to the roof of the mouth. At its root, the tongue is in contact with, and ?rmly united to, the upper edge of the LARYNX; so that in some persons who can depress the tongue readily the tip of the EPIGLOTTIS may be seen projecting upwards at its hinder part.

Structure The substance of the tongue consists almost entirely of muscles running in various directions. The tongue also has numerous outside attachments: one muscle on each side unites it to the lower jaw-bone just behind the chin, and this muscle serves to protrude the tongue from the mouth; other muscles, which retract the tongue, attach it to the hyoid bone, the larynx, the PALATE, and the styloid process on the base of the SKULL.

The mucous membrane on the undersurface of the tongue is very thin. In the middle line, a fold of mucous membrane, the frenum, passes from the under-surface to the ?oor of the mouth; when this frenum is attached too far forwards towards the tip of the tongue, the movements of the organ are impeded – the condition being known as tongue-tie. On the upper surface or dorsum of the tongue, the mucous membrane is thicker, and in its front two-thirds is studded with projections or papillae, most of which are conical. Some of them end in long ?laments, and are then known as ?liform papillae. On the tip, and towards the edges of the tongue, small, red, rounded fungiform papillae are seen, which act as end-organs for the sense of taste – as do circumvallate papillae, each of which is surrounded by a trench along which open numerous taste-buds. These taste-buds are also found in the fungiform papillae, scattered over

the throat, FAUCES, and palate. Five nerves, originating from the ?fth, seventh, ninth, tenth and 12th cervical nerves supply the tongue.... tongue

Two almond-shaped glands (see GLAND) situated one on each side of the narrow FAUCES where the mouth joins the throat. Each has a structure resembling that of a lymphatic gland, and consists of an elevation of the mucous membrane presenting 12–15 openings, which lead into pits or lacunae. The mucous covering is formed by the ordinary mucous membrane of the mouth, which also lines the pits; and the main substance of the gland is composed of loose connective tissue containing lymph corpuscles in its meshes, and packed here and there into denser nodules or follicles. The tonsils play an important role in the protective mechanism of the body against infection.... tonsils

n. (in anatomy) an elongated apparently supportive structure. For example, the pillars of the fauces are folds of mucous membrane on either side of the opening from the mouth to the pharynx.... pillar