The palate has two parts - an anterior hard palate and a posterior soft palate. The hard palate separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavities and consists of a bony plate covered in mucosa. The soft palate continues posteriorly from the hard palate and can be depressed to close the oropharyngeal isthmus or elevated to separate the nasopharynx from the oropharynx. The palate is covered by a thick stratified squamous epithelium supported by densely collagenous lamina propria.