What is the primary purpose of incisor teeth?
Cutting
What is the primary purpose of the molar teeth?
Grinding
What is the majority of chewing muscle innervated by?
5th cranial nerve
What part of the brain controls mastication?
Brain stem nuclei
What acts as a lubricant in the mouth?
Mucin (glycoprotein)
What digestive enzymes is food mixed with?
Describe the 3 stages of swallowing/deglutition
Desribe the 4 swallowing steps
How is the pharyngeal stage initiated?
Almost always voluntary movement of food into the back of the mouth
- Detected in ring area around the pharyngeal opening, excitation of involuntary pharyngeal sensory receptors to elicit the swallowing reflex
What nerves stimulate motor impulses from the swallowing centre to the pharynx and upper oesophagus?
5th, 9th, 10th, 12th cranial nerves (+ few superior cervical nerves)
How long is the pharyngeal stage?
< 6 seconds
- Interrupts respiration for fraction of usual respiratory cycle (swallowing centre specifically inhibits respiratory centre of medulla)
What are the 2 types of peristalsis?
What is the upper oesophagus innervated by?
Glossopharyngeal, vagus nerve
What is the lower 2/3 of the oesophagus innervated by?
VAgus nerves that act through connections with the oesophageal myenteric nervous sytem
What wave precedes peristalsis and what is it transmitted via?
What part of the oesophageal circular muscle acts as a sphincter?
Last 3cm
What are the motor functions of the stomach?
What does the food entering the stomach form in the orad portion of the stomach?
What is the ‘vagovagal’ reflex?
Food stretches stomach -> Stomach -> brain stem -> back to stomach ->
What are mixing waves?
Where are the mixing waves strongest?
- Force the antral contents under higher and higher pressure towards pylorus
What triggers emptying of the stomach?
Stretching of stomach walls
What are the enterogastric inhibitory reflexes?
What is the effect of increased stomach volume on gasric emptying?
Increased gastric emptying