Oral Cavity
The mouth, also called the oral cavity or buccal cavity, is the entranceway into the digestive system containing both primary and accessory organs of digestion.
The mouth is designed to support chewing, (mastication) and swallowing (deglutition), and speech (phonation).
Two rows of teeth are supported by facial bones of the skull, the maxilla above and the mandible below.
Teeth are surrounded by gingiva, or gums, part of the periodontium, support tissue of oral cavity protection.
In addition to the teeth, other structures that aid chewing are the lips, cheeks, tongue, hard palate, soft palate, and floor of the mouth.
Read more about this topic: Head And Neck
Famous quotes containing the word oral:
“We have seen over and over that white male historians in general have tended to dismiss any history they didn’t themselves write, on the grounds that it is unserious, unscholarly, a fad, too “political,” “merely” oral and thus unreliable.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)