You've gotta love your your uvula. It is very important if you are inclined to drink on an incline (especially head down) since it keeps the drink from coming up your nose.

There are TWO things that hang from the back of MY throat! Looks like the rear end of a bull!!

Then it's call a bifid uvula; a divided uvula. Commonly associated with a submucous cleft palate.
The fibres of the muscles (tensor palati/tensor veli palatini) are not joined together although the epitelium is intact. Nasal air escape my occur due to a shortened palate and velopharyngeal incompetence.

The Uvula is reputed to have a purpose beyond the (very interesting) assistance in inclined drinking; it aids in the moistening of the throat.

The Uvula is somewhat unfortunately implicated in snoring, along with the other tissues from which it depends. These tissues can be cut away with a laser in what is known as Laser Assisted Uvula Palatoplasty, or LAUP.


References:

Webpage: American Academy of Otolaryngology, Laser Assisted Uvula Palatoplasty (LAUP). (http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/snoring/laup.cfm)

U"vu*la (?), n. [NL., dim of L. uva a grape, the uvula.] Anat.

The pendent fleshy lobe in the middle of the posterior border of the soft palate.

The term is also applied to a somewhat similar lobe on the under side of the cerebellum and to another on the inner surface of the neck of the bladder.

 

© Webster 1913.

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