It forms the anterior three quarters of the hard palate, the horizontal plate of the palatine bone making up the rest.

When the two maxillae are articulated, a funnel-shaped opening, the incisive foramen, is seen in the middle line, immediately behind the incisor teeth.

On the under surface of the palatine process, a delicate linear suture, well seen in young skulls, may sometimes be noticed extending laterally and forward on either side from the incisive foramen to the interval between the lateral incisor and the canine tooth.

The small part in front of this suture constitutes the premaxilla (os incisivum), which in most vertebrates forms an independent bone; it includes the whole thickness of the alveolus, the corresponding part of the floor of the nose and the anterior nasal spine, and contains the sockets of the incisor teeth.

The front part of this ridge rises to a considerable height, and is named the incisor crest; it is prolonged forward into a sharp process, which forms, together with a similar process of the opposite bone, the anterior nasal spine.