An analysis of the variations in position of the greater palatine foramen in the adult human skull.

Three hundred dry, adult human skulls, of East Indian ethnic background, and homogenous in arch form and full eruption of third molars, were examined to measure the location of the greater palatine foramen. The greater palatine foramen was found consistently to lie 1.5 cm from the palatal midline and 0.19 cm from the posterior border of the hard palate. This relationship is suggested as a more accurate method of locating the foramen clinically. The usually accepted description (opposite the second molar) of the relative position of the greater palatine foramen to the upper teeth held in only 9.7% of the skulls studied. This study shows the most common position of the foramen to be opposite or distal to the third molar (57%). The direction of opening of the foramen into the oral cavity was observed to be in an inferior or vertical direction in 247 (82%) of the 300 skulls; in 53 (18%) of the skulls the direction was anterior or horizontal. A bony projection, similar to the mandibular lingula, was observed extending from the posterior margin of the foramen in 95 (16%) of the 600 separate foramina examined. The bilateral symmetry between the sides of the skulls studied was remarkable.