Uvula

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Uvula

The uvula is the conic projection from the posterior edge of the middle of the soft palate

Soft palate

The soft palate is the soft biological_tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate at the front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone....
, composed of connective tissue containing a number of racemose glands

Alveolar gland

In contrast to tubular glands, in the second main variety of gland, the secretory portion is enlarged and the lumen variously increased in size. These are termed alveolar glands ....
, and some muscular fibers (musculus uvulae

Musculus uvulae

The musculus uvulae is a muscle of the soft palate....
). It is frequently confused with the epiglottis

Epiglottis

The epiglottis is a flap of elastic cartilage tissue covered with a mucous membrane, attached to the root of the tongue. It projects obliquely upwards behind the tongue and the hyoid bone....
and the tonsils.

uvula plays a key role in the articulation of the sound of the human voice

Human voice

The human voice consists of sound Voice production by a human being using the vocal folds for Speech communication, singing, Laughter, crying, screaming, etc....
to form the sounds of speech. Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day was an United States jazz singer. Jazz Critic Will Friedwald has said ?When you think of the great jazz singers, I would think that Anita is the only white woman that belongs in the same breath as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.?...
, a popular big band singer, had her uvula accidentally removed during a childhood surgery when only her tonsil

Tonsil

Palatine tonsils, occasionally called the faucial tonsils, are the tonsils that can be seen on the left and right sides at the back of the throat....
s were intended to be removed.

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Function in voice

The uvula plays a key role in the articulation of the sound of the human voice

Human voice

Anita O'Day

Tonsil

Palatine tonsils, occasionally called the faucial tonsils, are the tonsils that can be seen on the left and right sides at the back of the throat....
s were intended to be removed. This affected her voice by eliminating vibrato

Vibrato

Vibrato is a musical effect, produced in singing and on musical instruments by a regular pulsating change of pitch , and is used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to instrumental music....
, she said, in an interview with Terry Gross

Terry Gross

Terry Gross is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format Talk radio produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by National Public Radio....
of NPR's "Fresh Air

Fresh Air

Fresh Air is a radio talk show hosted by Terry Gross, broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States. In 2004, the show was syndicated to 445 stations and claimed 4.4 million listeners....
" radio show, although the uvula is not responsible for vibrato (the vocal chords make this happen).

Function in languages

The uvula functions in tandem with the back of the throat, the palate, and air

AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
coming up from the lungs to create a number of guttural

Guttural consonant

Guttural is a term used to describe any of several Phone s whose primary place of articulation is near the back of the oral cavity. In some definitions this is restricted to pharyngeal consonants, but in others includes some but not all velar consonant and uvular consonants....
and other sounds. Uvular consonant

Uvular consonant

Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the Palatine uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants....
s are not found in most dialects of English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, though they are found in many Semitic

Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
, Caucasian, and Turkic languages

Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea to Siberia and Western China, and are sometimes considered to be part of the proposed Altaic languages....
, as well as several languages of Western Europe such as German

German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
. Certain African languages

African languages

There are an estimated 2,000 languages spoken in Africa. They fall into four major language family:*Afro-Asiatic languages stretches from North Africa to the Horn of Africa and Southwest Asia....
use the uvula to produce click consonant

Click consonant

Clicks are speech sounds such as English tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval, or the tchick! used to spur on a horse. In many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa, they are ordinary consonants, found for example in the name of the language Xhosa language....
s as well, though other than that, uvular consonants are fairly uncommon in Sub-Saharan Africa. In English (as well as many other languages), it closes the nasal passage to prevent air escaping through the nose when making nasal consonant

Nasal consonant

A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered soft palate in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the tongue....
s.

Pathology

Universal emetic

Massaging the uvula causes the gag reflex

Gag reflex

The pharyngeal reflex or gag reflex is a reflex contraction of the back of the throat, evoked by touching the soft palate. It prevents something from entering the throat except as part of normal swallowing and helps prevent choking....
to initiate and expel stomach contents, providing a universal alternative to emetic drugs such as ipecac

Ipecac

Ipecac may refer to:* Syrup of ipecac, an emetic substance, used to induce vomiting* Ipecac Recordings, an independent record label founded by Mike Patton and Greg Werckman...
. This is often an issue for people who plan to get uvula piercing

Uvula piercing

A uvula piercing is a body piercing through the palatine uvula. This is a rare piercing, and although the procedure is relatively simple many piercers may refuse to perform it....
s.

Velopharyngeal insufficiency

In a small number of people, the uvula does not close properly against the back of the throat, causing a condition known as velopharyngeal insufficiency or VPI. This causes "nasal" (or more properly "hyper-nasal") speech, where a lot of extra air comes down the nose, and the speaker is unable to say certain consonants, for example producing the sound /b/

Voiced bilabial plosive

The voiced bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b....
like /m/

Bilabial nasal

The bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is m....
.

Snoring and sleep apnea

The uvula can also contribute to snoring

Snoring

Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound, due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. In some cases the sound may be soft, but in other cases, it can be rather loud and quite unpleasant....
or heavy breathing during sleep; having an elongated uvula can cause vibrations which lead to snoring. In some cases this can lead to sleep apnea

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. Each episode, called an apnea , lasts long enough so that one or more breaths are missed, and such episodes occur repeatedly throughout sleep....
, which may be treated by removal of the uvula or part of it if necessary, an operation known as uvulopalatopharyngoplasty

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty is a surgical procedure used to remove tissue in the throat. It involves the removal of tissues which may or may not include:...
(commonly referred to as UPPP, or U3P). However, this operation can also cause sleep apnea if scar

Scar

Scars are areas of fibrous biological tissue that replace normal skin after injury. A scar results from the biologic process of wound repair in the skin and other biological tissue of the body....
tissue forms and the airspace in the velopharnyx is decreased. The success of UPPP as a treatment for sleep apnea is unknown, but some research has shown 40–60% effectiveness in reducing symptoms. Typically apnea subsides for the short term, but returns over the medium to long term, and sometimes is worse than it was before the UPPP.

Nasal regurgitation

During swallowing, the soft palate and the uvula move superiorly to close off the nasopharynx

Nasopharynx

The nasopharynx is the uppermost part of the pharynx. It extends from the base of the skull to the upper surface of the soft palate; it differs from the Mouth and larynx parts of the pharynx in that its cavity always remains patent ....
, preventing food from entering the nasal cavity

Nasal cavity

The nasal cavity is a large air-filled space above and behind the nose in the middle of the face....
. When this process fails, the result is called nasal regurgitation. It is common in people with VPI, the myositides and neuromuscular disorders.

Uvulitis

At times, the mucous membrane

Mucous membrane

The mucous membranes are linings of mostly germ layer origin, covered in epithelium, which are involved in absorption and secretion. They line various body cavities that are exposed to the external environment and internal organ ....
around the uvula may swell

Swelling

Swelling can mean:* In medicine:** Swelling is the enlargement of organs caused by accumulation of excess fluid in tissues, called edema.* In engineering:...
, causing the uvula to expand 3–5 times its normal size. When the uvula touches the throat or tongue, it can cause sensations like gagging or choking, even though there is no foreign matter present. This can cause problems breathing, talking, and eating.

There are many theories about what causes the uvula to swell, including dehydration

Dehydration

Dehydration is the removal of water from an object. In Physiology terms, it entails a relative deficiency of water molecules in relation to other dissolved solutes....
(e.g. from arid weather); excessive smoking

Tobacco smoking

Tobacco smoking is the inhalation of smoke from burned dried or cured leaves of the tobacco plant, most often in the form of a cigarette. People may smoke casually for pleasure, habitually to satisfy an addiction to the nicotine present in tobacco and to the act of smoking, or in response to social pressure....
or other inhaled irritants; snoring

Snoring

Virus

A virus is a Optical microscope#Limitations of light microscopes infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell . Viruses infect all cellular life....
or bacterial infection.

If the swelling is caused by dehydration, drinking fluids may improve the condition. If the cause is a bacterial infection, gargling

Gargling

Gargling is the act in which one bubbles a liquid in his or her mouth. It usually requires that the person tilts his or her head back, allowing a mouthful of liquid to sit in the upper throat....
salt water may help. However, it can also be a sign of other problems. Some people with a history of recurring uvulitis have to carry an EpiPen

EpiPen

EpiPen is a registered trademark for a commonly used autoinjector of epinephrine , used in medicine to treat anaphylactic shock....
containing Adrenaline (Epinephrine

Epinephrine

Epinephrine is a hormone and neurotransmitter.Epinephrine increases the "fight or flight" response of the Sympathetic nervous system of the autonomic nervous system....
) to inject themselves whenever the uvulitis begins. A swollen uvula is normally not life threatening and subsides in a short time, typically within a day.

Bifid uvula

A bifid uvula is a split or cleft uvula. Newborns with cleft palate also have a split uvula. The bifid uvula results from failure of complete fusion of the medial nasal and maxillary process

Maxillary prominence

Continuous with the dorsal end of the mandibular arch, and growing forward from its cephalic border, is a triangular process, the maxillary process , the Anatomical terms of location#Dorsal and ventral extremity of which is separated from the mandibular arch by a ">"-shaped notch....
es. Bifid uvulas have less muscle in them than a normal uvula, this may cause recurring problems with middle ear infections. While swallowing, the soft palate is pushed backwards. This prevents food and drink from entering the nasal cavity; if the soft palate cannot touch the back of the throat while swallowing, food and drink can enter the nasal cavity. Splitting of the uvula occurs infrequently but is the most common form of mouth and nose area cleavage among newborns (roughly 2% of infants have this bifid or split uvula). Bifid uvula occurs in about 1% of Caucasians and 10% of Native Americans.

Statistics have been presented in the New England Journal of Medicine suggesting a correlation between bifid uvula and aortic aneurysm.

Traditional removal of the uvula

In some parts of Africa, including Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
and Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the Country of Eritrea, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast....
, the uvula or a section of it may be removed by a traditional healer to allegedly prevent throat infections. In this case, the uvula may be noticeably shortened. It is not thought to contribute to VPI, except in cases where the tonsils have also been removed.

In fashion

Today, the uvula is one of many body parts that people pierce

Body piercing

Body piercing is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which body piercing jewelry may be worn....
. However, uvula piercing

Uvula piercing

A uvula piercing is a body piercing through the palatine uvula. This is a rare piercing, and although the procedure is relatively simple many piercers may refuse to perform it....
s are very dangerous compared to other forms of body piercing

Body piercing

Body piercing is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which body piercing jewelry may be worn....
, as the risks involved include throat edema

Edema

File:Oedema.jpgEdema or Oedema , formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin, or in one or more cavities of the body....
, choking, and uvular infection.

Additional images

External links

- Uvulitis

Uvula

Function in voice

Function in languages

Pathology

Universal emetic

Velopharyngeal insufficiency

Snoring and sleep apnea

Nasal regurgitation

Uvulitis

Bifid uvula

Traditional removal of the uvula

In fashion

Additional images

See also

External links