The invention relates to an anterior cervical plate (10) comprising receiving openings (12, 12*) for
bone screws. In order to give the anterior cervical plate, with a locking option for inserted
bone screws, an optimized anatomical design in order to reduce
swallowing difficulties and tissue irritations, the cervical plate (10) with a
normal thickness DN, i.e. the raw thickness of the plate without
processing surfaces, tapers beginning at least at its cranial end portion (AE) at a distance AK from a cranial
peripheral edge (60), for which the following applies: 0.5 x DN ≤ AK ≤ 3 x DN, preferably 1 x DN ≤ AK ≤ 2.5 x DN on the basis of a Cartesian coordinate
system with an X-axis in the longitudinal direction, a Y-axis in the transverse direction and a Z-axis in the thickness direction of the plate (10) in the direction of its thickness extension up to an edge-side
rounding section (RA) to 25% to 80% of the
normal thickness DN. The tapering of the anterior cervical plate in the transverse direction takes place via a
rounding starting from approximately the centre of the bores up to the end of the plate.