What Are The Turbinates:
Fig 7(a): Left sagittal cross-section of head.
On the lateral axis (the Sagittal view)- Each side begins with the nostril entrance (the anterior nare) of air in the anterior (front) of the nose and ends at the nasopharynx in the posterior (back) of the nose (the posterior nare), from which the inspired air continues through the throat to the lungs.
Fig 7(b): Coronal Front cross section of nasal cavities.
Looking from the front or back axis (the Coronal view) each side starts in the lower region (known as the “inferior meatus”) – at the nasal floor (located over the roof of the mouth) and continues upwards into the inferior section, where the inferior turbinate occupies most of the space, and from there to the narrower middle (“middle meatus”) and higher middle areas that are occupied by the middle turbinate, and finally at the top most narrowest portion of the cavities lay the tiny (proportionally) superior turbinate and the roof of the nose, which is essentially the bony floor of the skull, known as the cribriform plate. (it’s no wonder why when the ancient Egyptians used to prepare their dead for mummification they used the nose to access the brain…and pull it’s contents through the nose).
Fig 8: Olfatory bulb in an empty nose.
At this area of the nose’s roof is located the olfactory bundle of nerve receptors, harboring nerve endings running all across the mucosa of the higher regions of the nose (the “superior meatus”), and extending even into the middle turbinates. The receptors, well embedded in the olfactory epithelium and mucosa of the superior meatus and above, are connected with a rich net of nerve axons that penetrate through the cribriform plate and make their way into the olfactory bulbs in the brain and from there they fire their electrical action potentials to the olfaction center of the brain.