Angel Marie A.

Villaverde
RR21

1. Describe the structure and functions of mouth, throat, nose, and sinuses.

MOUTH

● Mouth or oral cavity is formed by the lips, cheeks, hard and soft palate, uvula,
and the tongue and its muscle.
● It is also the beginning of the digestive tract and serves as an airway for the
respiratory tract.
● We can see the upper and lower lips form the entrance of the mouth, it serves
as a protective gateway to digestive and respiratory tracts.
● In the roof of the oral cavity it is formed by the anterior hard palate and the
posterior soft palate there is an extension of the soft palate is the uvula which
hangs in the posterior midline of the oropharynx.
● The cheeks form the lateral walls of the mouth, whereas the tongue and its
muscle form the floor of the mouth.
● The jaw bone or we call it the mandible it provides the structural support for the
floor of the mouth.
● In the internal part of the mouth we have tongue, teeth, gums, and the
openings of the salivary glands (parotid, submandibular, and sublingual).
● The tongue contains a mass of muscle, attached to the hyoid bone and styloid
process of the temporal bone
○ It assists also with moving the food, swallowing, and speaking.
● The gums (gingiva) are covered by mucous membrane and normally hold 32
permanent teeth in the adult. The teeth help with chewing of the foods.
● The three pairs of salivary which secretes saliva that helps to breakdown food
and lubricates.

THROAT

➔ The throat (pharynx) is located behind the mouth and nose, and serves as a
muscular passage for food and air.
➔ In the upper part of the throat is the nasopharynx it lies in the laryngopharynx.
➔ The soft palate, anterior, and posterior pillar, and uvula connect behind the
tongue to form arches.
➔ Masses of lymphoid tissue referred to as the palatine tonsils are located on
both sides of the oropharynx at the end of the soft palate between the anterior
and posterior pillars.
➔ The lingual tonsils lie at the base of the tongue.
➔ Pharyngeal tonsils, or adenoids, are found high in the nasopharynx because
the tonsils are masses of lymphoid tissue, they help protect against infection.

NOSE

● The nose is composed of an external portion covered with skin and an internal
nasal cavity which consists of bone and cartilage, and it is lined with mucus
membrane.
● The external nose consists of a bridge which is located in the upper portio, tip,
 and two oval openings called the nare.
● The nasal cavity is located between the roof of the mouth and the cranium.
● The three turbinates increase the surface area that is exposed to incoming air.
● Nasal hair or the vibrissae filters large particles from the air.
● The Ciliated mucosal cells then capture and propel debris toward the throat,
where it is swallowed.
● The receptors for the first cranial which is the olfactory are located in the upper
part of the nasal cavity and septum.

SINUSES

➔ We have four pairs of paranasal sinuses composed of frontal, maxillary,

ethmoidal, and sphenoidal which are located in the skull.
➔ These air-filled cavities decrease the weight of the skull and act as resonance
chambers during the speech.
➔ It is lined with ciliated mucous membrane that traps debris and propels it
toward the outside.
➔ They are often a primary site of infection because they can easily become
blocked.
➔ In the above the eyes we have the frontal sinuses and in the upper jaw we
have maxillary sinuses which are accessible to examination by the nurse.
➔ The ethmoidal and sphenoidal sinuses are smaller, located deeper in the skull,
and are not accessible for examination.

2. How would you obtain an accurate nursing history of your client’s mouth, throat, nose,
and sinuses?

● To obtain an accurate nursing history is to take the subjective assessment first by asking
the patient several questions.
● Most of the diseases and the abnormalities in the mouth, throat, nose, and sinus usually
can affect the client’s activities of daily living (ADLs).
● Examination and screening of the mouth, throat, nose, and sinuses.
● For example: In tongue and mouth we usually use the COLDSPA because exploring the
symptoms with this can provide data to determine if lesions are related to medication,
stress, infection, trauma, or malignancy. Additionally, we ask the client if there is
redness, swelling, bleeding or pain in the mouth and if there is a toothache cause dental
pain may occur dental caries, abscesses, or sensitive teeth.

3. Explain the mechanism of breathing.

➔ The process of exchanging gas through the nose is called breathing.

➔ Breathing involves two steps one is breath in or inhalation or inspiration and to
breath out or exhalation or expiration.
➔ Inhalation process starts with movement of diaphragm downward and movement
of sternum outward because of these movements space gets created in lungs
and air gets sucked in through nostrils as we breathe in different gases in
surrounding with big unsmooth dust particles and put through the nostrils. The
 hair in the nostril stops the big dust particles as the remaining gases including
small dust particles and microbes reach to nasal cavity microbes get removed by
mucus and cilia remove the small dust particles. Mucus also makes a moisten
and capillaries in the nasal cavity make the air warm after purification air enters
the windpipe where it further gets purified by mucus and cilia total air gets divided
by bronchi and enters the lungs where it further gets divided by bronchioles and
finally all the gases reach to millions of alveoli. Alveoli is covered with large
number of blood vessels and due to diffusion only oxygen gas passes into the
blood vessels and all other gases stay in alveoli side blood-vessel oxygen
combines with hemoglobin present in the blood to form oxyhemoglobin this
compound then reached the heart which pumps it to different cells in the body. In
the cells oxygen is used for energy generation. In this process carbon dioxide is
produced, boon dioxide gets absorbed by blood and reaches the heart from
where the heart pumps this blood to lungs where carbon dioxide gets diffused to
alveoli.
➔ To get fresh supply of oxygen alveoli needs to be emptied gases in alveoli are
emptied by the process called exhalation or expiration in this process sternum
moves inwards and diaphragm moves upward these movements pressurize the
gases to move out of the lungs through nostrils. Movement of diaphragm and
sternum is controlled by this exhale includes carbon dioxide and all those gases
which were taken in but were not absorbed by blood.

4. Illustrate and describe the normal breath sounds.

❏ Harsh, high-pitched
Trach ❏ Above the supraclavicular notch, over the trachea.
eal

❏ Loud, high-pitched.
Bronchial ❏ Just above clavicles on each side of the sternum, over the
manubrium

❏ Medium in loudness and pitch.

Bronchove ❏ Next to the sternum, between the scapulae.
sicular
❏ Soft, low-pitched.
Vesicula ❏ Remainder of lungs.
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