Alveolar foramina
Foramina alveolaria
Definition
The alveolar foramina are openings of alveolar canals on the infratemporal surface of maxilla for the passage of the several individual branches of the posterior superior alveolar nerve.
In the Terminologia Anatomica 2 (versus the TA1 from 1998), subitems have been added to the term “Alveolar foramina” :
They are simply described as “There are usually three sets of alveolar foramina in the maxilla”.
We haven’t found any other sources referring to these bony structures, and we believe that it concerns the position of the alveolar foramina on the temporal surface of the maxilla.
But these terms may be confusing with the middle and anterior superior alveolar nerves, that are not located in this area of maxilla, and don’t emerge in the namelike foramina.
References
Text by Antoine Micheau, MD - Copyright IMAIOS
This definition incorporates text from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy (20th U.S. edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, published in 1918 – from http://www.bartleby.com/107/).
Terminologia anatomica 2: international anatomical terminology By the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT).
