Palate and lip disorders

Palate and lip disorders involve the oral mucosa as well as the inner and outer part of the lips and may include various congenital diseases and disorders, as well as acquired inflammatory, tumour or functional disorders. Sometimes diseases of other parts of the body are also manifested in the oral mucosa or on the lips, most often by various rashes or other dermatological disorders, but the palate and lips are equally affected by separate oral and other diseases.

The lips are the entrance to the oral cavity and a separate visible organ around the mouth that is made up of multi-layered squamous epithelium. Usually, the larger lip is above the smaller one, and the movement of the lips is provided by muscles, namely the lip lifter muscle namely the oral circular muscle. This muscle also provides the forward pull of the lower lip, encircling the cleft of the mouth, and is housed in the lip. It is a type of animal muscle. As such, the lips have multiple functions, whether for food intake, in facial expressions or in speech articulation.

The palate is the part of the oral cavity that is formed by the upper jawbone and is covered by mucous membranes on the side of the mouth. It is the ceiling of the oral cavity and is basically the septum separating the nasal cavity from the mouth. The palate is made up of a hard anterior part and a soft posterior part, which is also made up of musculature and ligaments. The palate also has several functions, the most important of which are preventing food from penetrating upwards during swallowing and aiding in the production of sounds.

The structure of the palate

The palate is the ceiling of the oral cavity and separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. It is covered by a mucous membrane as part of the mucous membrane and in humans consists of two parts, the hard palate and the soft palate. The hard palate is formed on the upper side by the maxilla and is located on the anterior side, while the soft palate is on the posterior side, where the ligaments and musculature are located. The hard palate itself is further subdivided into several formations that are found on it.

In hard palate contains the transverse palatine folds, hard ridges that become smoother with time. There is also a longitudinal mound in the middle part of the palate called raphae palati, and it is the remnant of the growth of two bones that form the upper palate in the front. The papilla incisiva, which is a smaller elevation where the sagging of the oral mucosa and two blind canals, which have no significant function, can also be found in the middle part.

The soft palate is formed by a movable disc, the base of the disc being made up of connective tissue, which is loosely followed by the muscles of the soft palate and pharyngeal inlet. The surface on the oral cavity side of the soft palate is also made up of mucosa, which is made up of a multi-layered epithelium that also contains the taste buds. On the upper side, the epithelium is multilayered and contains smaller cilia, which are formed by islets of squamous multilayered epithelium.

The human palate can be affected by various inflammatory and non-inflammatory diseases, e.g. various pathological formations, tumours, boils, cysts, clusters of multiplying cells, or inflammation transferred from the surrounding tissues can occur here. Some diseases affect only the mucous membrane of the palate, but very often they also affect other tissues in the oral cavity, most often the mucous membrane of other parts of the mouth, the tongue or the gums. These can be congenital as well as traumatic and acquired diseases.

The structure of lips

The lips are a separate organ lining the oral cavity, which is richly innervated and vascularized, being a paired organ consisting of an upper lip and a lower lip. The lips are composed of several types of tissues, the largest in volume being the transversely striated round oral muscle. On the surface of the muscle there is a ligamentous part and above it an epithelial part. The epithelium on the surface of the lip can be of three types, depending on which part of the lip it is located on.

On the outer side of the lip can be found a multi-layered stratified stratified squamous epithelium, which contains pubic hair and smaller glands. On the side away from the oral cavity, on the other hand, there is a non-cornifying squamous multi-layered epithelium, which also contains smaller, this time salivary glands in the fascia. At the point of transition between these two parts of the lip, which is also called the prolabium, the epithelium is made up of richly vascularised fibrous papillae, which give this part of the lip its colour.

On the cutaneous part of the lip, there is a thin layer of skin made up of stratified stratified stratified stratified squamous epithelium and dermal adexa, which is the part containing hair follicles, sebaceous glands and sweat glands. In the area of the rubea, in turn, are nerve endings and Meissner's glands, and this part is richly innervated and sensitive. In the mucosal part of the lips there is also a multilayered squamous epithelium, as well as sparse collagenous connective tissue, mixed seromucinous salivary glands and striated striated muscularis.

With regard to various lip diseases, infectious and inflammatory diseases are very often present on both the outer and inner part, but also various defects acquired from traumatic causes, i.e. from injuries such as biting or from external and external factors. However, the lips are also affected by certain diseases related to the palate and the surrounding oral mucosa, which may arise from other diseases and are symptoms of multi-systemic diseases.

Cysts, tumours and lesions

The palate, like other parts of the oral mucosa, is affected by several types of cysts and tumours. These may be developmental neodontogenic cysts in the oral region, such as palatal papilla cysts, or various tumour deposits, either malignant or benign, which affect the entire oral cavity globally. Such lesions affecting the mucous membranes of the palate and mouth include leukoplakia, which are diseases of the oral epithelium affecting both the mucous membranes of the palate and, for example, the tongue.

Oral cancer is the most common cancer that also affects the lining of the palate. It is a malignant cancer that can very often be linked to smoking, which is a significant risk factor for the development of oral cancer. As far as the climate is concerned, more than ? cases of tumours are located in the soft part of the palate, where the tumour often reaches the palate by metastasis from the surrounding tissues or surrounding mucosa.

A nascent tumour can look like a spot or an ulcer, and so it is very easy to either underestimate it or miss it completely. Very few cases are painful in the initial stages, most of the time the initial development of the tumour is asymptotic. Later, when pain and, for example, the sensation of a foreign body or problems with speech or swallowing have already appeared, it is already an advanced stage, when metastases have also formed. The treatment is a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Quite dangerous are also various cysts that can form on the papillae of the palate and arise mostly from the epithelial tissues of the mucosa. Leukoplakia, which is very common on the oral mucosa, especially on the gums, but also on the palate or lips, for example, is dangerous in that it can form tumours over time. In this case, too, the disease first manifests itself in pale lesions and spots, which later spread. The most common is the so-called nicotine leukoplakia, also caused by smoking.

Inflammations of the palate and palate disorders

The palate and the mucous membranes of the palate are also affected by various inflammations, malfunctions or defects. These include, for example, granulomatous types of disease such as rosaceous granuloma of the oral mucosa, pyogenic granuloma of the oral mucosa or verruciform xanthoma of the oral mucosa. The tongue and oral mucosa may also be affected by oral submucosal fibrosis or irritative oral hyperplasia. Oral mucinous mucinosis is a disease occurring more rarely and is also related to the salivary glands.

The most common form of inflammation in the oral cavity is stomatitis. This category includes, for example, recurrent oral aphthae, which occur mainly on the palate, but also unspecified, ulcerative or verrucous stomatitis. Sometimes an abscess may also occur, when inflammation develops with necrotizing tissue that accumulates in deposits on the surface of the oral mucosa. Aphthous stomatitis and herpetic stomatitis are the most common inflammation on the palate.

In this case, there may be several causes for the appearance of these inflammations, such as chemical or mechanical irritation, viral or bacterial infection, but aphthae, for example, can also be a reflection of indigestion or malnutrition, since the oral cavity is closely related to the digestive tube. Also, aphthae can be a sign of avitaminosis, where there is a deficiency or very low levels of certain vitamins, most commonly B vitamins, or zinc, iron and calcium.

Some diseases can also originate from the mucous membrane of the tongue, and these are also most often inflammatory diseases on an infectious basis. However, the palate is also affected by various deformities and defects that are congenital in nature, with clefts being the most common. This is a condition in which the upper jaw and paired bones of the palate do not fuse properly during prenatal development, so that a gap develops. These conditions can now be surgically treated quite successfully.

Inflammatory and non-inflammatory lip diseases

Lip diseases include inflammatory diseases, non-inflammatory types of diseases and various functional disorders, structures and defects of the lips. The most common form of inflammation is chelitis, which can be angular-corner, exfoliative and glandular. In addition, the lips are also affected by cheilodynia, cheilosis (i.e. swelling and fissuring of the lips) and various defects caused by biting the cheeks and lips. The non-inflammatory types of diseases clearly include various types of tumours and also defects such as cleft lip and other developmental defects.

Cancers are most often malignant and benign tumours, which in almost all cases appear on the lower lip, either on the outer lip or, in most cases, on the inner lip. Sometimes these tumours also affect related mucous membranes. They are most often associated with the influence of external factors, such as smoking, but of course they also arise from congenital predispositions. In the early stages, they may look like boils or spots.

Common inflammatory diseases include, for example, aphthae, which affect the oral mucosa as well as the palate or the inside of the lips, but also cold sores. These are viral infections affecting the skin and mucous membranes, and are often recurrent inflammation that keeps coming back. In this case, it is an inflammation caused by an infectious virus of the herpes type. Some viruses cause blistering and ulceration, while others are manifested by redness and inflammation of the affected area.