The Surgical Anatomy of the Greater Palatine Artery: A Human Cadaver Study.

Identifying the accurate location of the greater palatine artery (GPA) can be challenging. The purpose of the present cadaver study was to determine the location of the GPA from the cementoenamel junction (CEJ) of the maxillary canine to second molar teeth and to define its relationship with the palatal vault height (PVH) in Caucasian cadavers. Sixty-six sections from fully or partially dentate cadavers were examined. The location of the GPA from the CEJ ranged from a minimum of 8.7 ± 2.1 mm at the canine to 14.5 ± 1.3 mm at the second molar. The minimum distance of the GPA to the CEJ in different PVH ranged from 6 to 12 mm. There was a significant difference between male and female cadavers regarding shallow PVH. Only the PVH as an independent variable had a significant correlation with the GPA location. The present study is the first to identify the different PVHs with customized stents and to correlate them with the distance of the GPA to the CEJ of maxillary teeth.