The paper presents a morphological analysis of the palatine torus of the Cracovian
skull dated from XV-XVIIIth century. The cranial collection analysed comprised
98 skulls with the hard palate preserved but only 27 male and 28 female
skulls showed the palatine torus. The length, breadth and height of the palatine
torus were measured, and a visual inspection of the position and form of the
torus was performed. Our findings suggest that most typical of the skulls analysed
is a medium-sized mound-shaped palatine torus in an antero-posterior position,
which means that the torus occupies the palatal processes of the maxilla
and the horizontal plates of the palatine bones along the mid-palatal suture.
Mean parameters of the palatine torus were established as: length - 25.7 mm
(male) and 28.3 mm (female), width - 10.8 mm (male) and 10.2 mm (female),
height 2.7 (male) and 3.2 mm (female). There are no significant differences
between mean values of the parameters of the palatine torus

Holiat, Dominika

Skrzat, Janusz

Walocha, Jerzy

English

Via Medica Journals

Folia Morphol. Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 183–186Copyright © 2003 Via MedicaISSN 0015–5659www.fm.viamedica.plO R I G I N A L  A R T I C L E183Address for correspondence: Janusz Skrzat, MD, Department of Anatomy, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, ul. Kopernika 12,31–034 Kraków, Poland, tel: +48 12 422 95 11, fax: +48 12 430 30 06, e-mail: jskrzat@poczta.onet.plThe morphological appearance of the palatinetorus in the Cracovian skulls (XV–XVIII century)Janusz Skrzat, Dominika Holiat, Jerzy WalochaDepartment of Anatomy, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland[Received 16 May 2003; Accepted 27 June 2003]The paper presents a morphological analysis of the palatine torus of the Cracov-ian skull dated from XV–XVIIIth century. The cranial collection analysed com-prised 98 skulls with the hard palate preserved but only 27 male and 28 femaleskulls showed the palatine torus. The length, breadth and height of the palatinetorus were measured, and a visual inspection of the position and form of thetorus was performed. Our findings suggest that most typical of the skulls analy-sed is a medium-sized mound-shaped palatine torus in an antero-posterior posi-tion, which means that the torus occupies the palatal processes of the maxillaand the horizontal plates of the palatine bones along the mid-palatal suture.Mean parameters of the palatine torus were established as: length — 25.7 mm(male) and 28.3 mm (female), width — 10.8 mm (male) and 10.2 mm (female),height 2.7 (male) and 3.2 mm (female). There are no significant differencesbetween mean values of the parameters of the palatine torus.key words: palatine torus, torus palatinus, hard palateINTRODUCTIONThe palatine torus /torus palatinus/ is a slowlygrowing bony elevation that sometimes exists on thehard palate along the mid-palatal suture and inter-palatine suture. However, the anatomical position ofthe palatine torus varies according to the transversepalatine suture. It may extend forwards or backwardstowards the transverse palatine suture, and sometimesthe torus is located in the area of intersection of bothpalatine sutures, forming an oval elevation (Fig. 1).The palatine torus consists of compact bone exter-nally and spongy bone internally [13, 14].Anthropological and anatomical studies havereported variously concerning the frequency andmorphology of this cranial feature. Existing inves-tigations into the palatine torus are not alwayscomparable and its morphology is studied on liv-ing individuals or in collections of dry skulls [9].The etiology of the palatine torus has been con-sidered by many scientists who have argued for dif-ferent reasons for its formation and its dependenceon various factors which have an impact on palatalmorphogenesis [12, 14]. Apparently the palatinetorus has no functional importance, unless it is ex-tremely large, in which case it may cause discomfortin the oral cavity. The morphology of the palatinetori of the human skull is also of clinical importancein the administration of palatal surgery and in orth-odontic practice [8]. The occurrence of the palatinetorus is meaningful in the event of necessary pros-thetic management in the oral cavity. It may thensignificantly interfere with the stabilisation of thedenture, which has to be mounted in the oral cavityand adhere precisely to the vault of the palate. Un-derstanding of the appearance and variation of thisstructure is therefore the concern of investigators ofdifferent biomedical sciences.Because there is a lack of effective data on themorphology and occurrence of the palatine torus inthe Polish population, we undertook an analysis of184Folia Morphol., 2003, Vol. 62, No. 3this feature in the Cracovian skulls, the results ofwhich might serve as a contribution to the cross-sectional and comparative study of the past andpresent populations.MATERIAL AND METHODPalatine tori were analysed on dry skulls from theAthropological Museum of the Department of Anthro-pology of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Thecranial set derives from a period of XV–XVIIIth century.The whole Cracovian cranial set comprises 203 skullsof known sex (99 male skulls and 104 female skulls).From the entire collection only 98 skulls have been in-vestigated as these had preserved the hard palate and61 of these skulls manifested the presence of the pa-latine torus (27 male and 28 female). That subset wassubjected to morphometrical analysis.The morphological appearance of the palatinetorus was analysed by visual inspection and its posi-tion was recorded in the hard palate. Additionally,measurements of the length, breadth and height ofthe palatine torus were performed using a slidingand a co-ordinated caliper respectively and the re-sults were recorded in millimeters. The length of thepalatine torus was measured from the beginning tothe end along the mid-sagittal line and the breadthwas measured at its widest part.The size of palatine torus was rated as small,medium or large according to the classification ap-plied by Woo [14] (Table 1). The form of the palatinetorus was evaluated as ridge, mound or lump. Theridge form is a torus that is relatively narrow anduniform in width. A torus, which is relatively wideand tapers anteriorly and posteriorly, is termed asbeing in mound form. The palatine tori of irregularshape are classified as being in lump form [6]. Thepercentage of each type of palatine torus was count-ed in both sexes.We employed a two-sample analysis to detectstatistical differences between the diameters of thepalatine tori of male and female skulls.RESULTSStatistical data for the palatine tori analysed areassembled in Table 2 and the percentage occurrenceof size, form and position of the  palatine torus in theskulls examined are presented in the graphs (Fig. 2, 3).Figure 1. External forms of the palatine torus.Table 1. Classification of the size of the palatine torus (inmillimeters)Elevation Width LengthSmall Under 3 Under 10 Under 15Medium 3–5 10–15 15–25Large Above 5 Above 15 Above 25Table 2. Means and range of variation in the diameters ofthe palatine torus for 27 male and 28 female skullsLength Width HeightMale Female Male Female Male FemaleMean 25.7 28.3 10.8 10.2 2.7 3.2Std. dev. 8.6 7.4 4.6 3.8 0.7 1.9Min 13.0 10.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0Max 39.0 38.0 22.0 21.0 4.0 10.0185Janusz Skrzat et al., Morphology of the palatine torus….The statistical test did not show significant dif-ferences in means of length, width and height ofthe palatine torus between the male and femaleskulls.The palatine tori analysed can be classified aslarge, medium and small but the medium size wasthe most frequently occurring in both sexes. Largetori were more typical for male skulls and small toriare often found in female skulls.The mound form of the palatine torus was dom-inant in the analysed skulls in both sexes, but in thecase of female skulls there is an overwhelming dom-inance of this form and it constitutes nearly 70%.The ridge form is uncommon in the female skulls(10%), while the ridge form and lump form are sim-ilarly distributed among the male skulls.In the skulls studied the palatine torus was locat-ed along the mid-sagittal line of the hard palate anddid not deviate from this line. The anatomical posi-tion of the analysed palatine torus varies accordingto the transverse palatine suture. All positions wererecorded, except the middle position of the torus inthe female skulls. The most typical was the antero-posterior position, where the torus extends alongthe mid-palatal and interpalatine sutures. The pos-terior position of the torus (occupying only the hor-izontal plates of the palatal bones) was the rarest inboth sexes.DISCUSSIONThe palatal torus varies in form and size. Wooreported that the greatest normal length reachedby the torus is 50 mm, the width 23 mm and theheight 8 mm and Martin mentioned a torus with anelevation of 12 mm [11, 14]. The palatal tori analy-sed in the Cracovian skulls correspond in their diam-eters to the data cited.As presented in literature, there is a populationvariation in the occurrence of the palatine torus. Thefrequency of the palatine torus varies significantlyboth for male and female skulls. In our case the fre-quency of the palatine torus is equal in both sexes inthe sample analysed and is estimated as 56%. Forcomparison, Zivanovic found the palatine toruspresent in 33.5% of males and 49% of females ofthe skulls in the Galloway Collection. In the medi-eval Slavonic series of cranial sets the palatine toruswas found in 53.33% of male and 46.66% femaleskulls [15]. In Korean skulls the palatine torus wasfound in 18.8%, while in skulls from Kenya the toruswas observed in 4.8% [3, 10].As noted, the palatine torus shows a marked mor-phological variation and frequency. In our case theresults of a frequency analysis of the torus are notvery representative of the whole population, becausethe majority of the skulls did not preserve the facialskeleton, so that we were not able to observe theirpalatal morphology and to conclude whether thefrequency would be different. Nevertheless, it seemsthat the palatine torus appeared quite often in thecranial set analysed, so that one may presume thatits occurrence might be typical for the Cracovianpopulation. This view needs verification from othercranial series from Cracow, which would be morenumerous and coherent chronologically.Figure 3. Position of occurrence of the palatine torus.Figure 2. Distribution of size and form of the palatine torus.186Folia Morphol., 2003, Vol. 62, No. 3The palatine torus shows a hereditary tendencyand is coupled with racial variation [13]. Thus thiscranial trait might be helpful in identifying popula-tion groups which show a prevalence of palatine tori.We did not analyse the association between the pres-ence or morphology of the palatine torus and theracial character of the skulls examined because thiswas not a goal of this study. However, on the basisof the results of a typological analysis performed byKaczanowski on the Cracovian skulls studied, 46%of the male and 43% of the female skulls belong tothe Laponoidal type [7]. This constitutes a relativelyhigh percentage of a selected racial group (Laponoid)in the cranial set studied. We therefore hypothesisethat our cranial set may confirm the view that thepalatine torus is a characteristic feature of Laponoidskulls. According to the findings of Hooton, the pa-latine torus occurs with a higher frequency amongpopulations in the northern world [5] and theLaponoidal race originates in these habitats.There are current studies of the occurrence ofthe palatine torus but these refer in most cases tothe American or other populations [1, 4]. Unfor-tunately, we did not make any profound discov-ery about the occurrence of the palatine torus inthe contemporary Cracovian or Polish population.El-Nofely claims that the palatine torus was often foundin both males and females living in the area of Augus-tov in northeast Poland, but this can be the effect ofan analysis performed on an isolated ethnic group [2].Thus we conclude that our study may give a brief in-sight into the morphological and comparative analysisof the palatine torus in Polish human crania.REFERENCES1. Chochayeb AA, Volpe AR (2001) Occurrence of toruspalatinus and mandibularis  among women of differ-ent ethnic group. Am J Dent, 14: 278–280.2. El-Nofely A (1976) Some observations on the denti-tion of an isolated group in northeast Poland. Am JPhys Anthrop, 44: 123–126.3. Hassanali J, Mwaniki D (1984) Palatal analysis and os-teology of the hard palate of  the Kenyan African skulls.Anat Rec, 209: 273–280.4. Haugen LK (1992) Palatine and mandibular tori. A mor-phologic study in current Norwegian population. ActaOdontol Scand, 50: 65–77.5. Hooton EA (1918) On certain Eskimoid characters inIcelandic skulls. Am J Phys Anthrop, 1: 53–76.6. Hooton EA (1946) Up from the ape. 2nd ed. MacmillanCo., New York.7. Kaczanowski K (1965) Czaszki przy kościele Mariackimw Krakowie (XV–XVIII w.). Materiały i Prace Antropo-logiczne, 71: 57–112.8. Kerdpon D, Sirirungrojying S (1999) A clinical study oforal tori in southern Thailand: prevalence and relationto parafunctional activity. Eur J Oral Sci, 107: 9–13.9. Kronenberger H (1981) The torus palatinus. Anthro-pol Anz, 39: 150–157.10. Lee SP, Paik KS, Kim MK (2001) Variations of the promi-nences of the bony palate and their relationship to com-plete dentures in Korean skulls. Clinic Anat, 14: 324–329.11. Martin R (1928) Lehrbuch der Antropologie, Jena.12. Sawyer DR, Allison MJ, Elzay RP, Pezzia A (1979) A studyof torus palatinus and torus mandibularis in pre-Co-lumbian Peruvians. Am J Phys Anthrop, 50: 525–526.13. Suzuki M, Sakai T (1960) A familial study of torus pa-latinus and torus mandibularis. Am J Phys Anthrop,18: 263–272.14. Woo JK (1950) Torus Palatinus. Am J Phys Anthrop, 8:81–111.15. Zivanovic S (1980) Longitudinal grooves and canalsof the human hard palate.  Anat Anz, 147: 161–167.

The morphological appearance of the palatine torus in the Cracovian skulls (XV-XVIII century)

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The morphological appearance of the palatine torus in the Cracovian skulls (XV-XVIII century)

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