Digestive system · Head and neck
Sublingual gland !
The sublingual gland is the smallest major salivary gland, under the tongue; it adds thick saliva through many small ducts.
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What it is
The smallest major salivary gland, under the tongue.
What it does
Adds thick saliva through many small ducts.
Key facts
- Where
- Floor of the mouth under the tongue, above the mylohyoid
- Blood supply
- Sublingual and submental arteries
- Nerve
- Parasympathetic: VII (chorda tympani)
- Function
- Mucous saliva via many small ducts
Relations
- Above
- Mucosa of the floor of the mouth, raised as the sublingual fold
- Below
- Mylohyoid
- Medial
- Genioglossus, with the submandibular duct and the lingual nerve running between the gland and the muscle
- Lateral
- Sublingual fossa on the inner surface of the mandible, above the mylohyoid line
- Behind
- Deep part of the submandibular gland
How to find it
With the tongue lifted toward the palate, it is seen and felt as a soft ridge under the mucosa on each side of the frenulum; bimanual palpation feels it against the mylohyoid.
On imaging
Ultrasound and MRI show a ranula as a thin-walled fluid collection; a plunging ranula keeps a narrow 'tail' back to the sublingual space, which helps tell it from other neck cysts.
Clinical notes
- Ranulas recur least when the sublingual gland itself is removed; drainage alone often recurs
- Surgery on the gland endangers the submandibular duct and the lingual nerve along its inner side
- Tumours of the sublingual gland are rare, but a high proportion are malignant
Development
The last of the major salivary glands to appear, as several small buds from the floor of the mouth in the groove beside the tongue, which fits with its many separate ducts.
Related conditions
Test yourself
Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.
What is a ranula?
A mucus-filled pseudocyst from a damaged sublingual gland: a soft bluish swelling on one side of the floor of the mouth.
What is a plunging ranula?
A ranula that passes through or behind the mylohyoid into the neck and shows as a soft swelling under the jaw.
Which treatment of a ranula recurs least?
Removing the sublingual gland itself; drainage alone often recurs.
Educational information, not medical advice. For any symptom, see a health professional.
Its names
- Official Latin (TA2)
- glandula sublingualis TA2 2807
- Official Spanish (DeCS)
- Glándula Sublingual DeCS D013361
- English (TA2)
- Sublingual gland
- Also called
- gland of Rivinus
Sources: Terminologia Anatomica (TA2); DeCS; Anatomy, Head and Neck, Sublingual Gland; Anatomy, Head and Neck, Salivary Glands; Anatomy of the Human Body (20th ed.): The Digestive Apparatus (Lea & Febiger (Gray's Anatomy, 1918), 1918) · adapted, Public domain.
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Representative model, for educational purposes only.
