Muscle · Head

Levator veli palatini

Musculus levator veli palatini

The muscle that lifts the soft palate. It is a rounded cord descending from the underside of the skull just in front of the opening for the carotid artery, and from the cartilage of the tube that connects the middle ear to the throat, running downward and forward to spread into the fibrous sheet of the soft palate. Raising that sheet seals the back of the nose off from the throat, which is what stops food and drink coming down your nose when you swallow, and what lets you build pressure for consonants like K and G. It is also credited with helping to open the ear tube alongside the tensor beside it, which is part of why a swallow clears the ears on a descending aircraft.