Can Dentition Aid in Estimation of Handedness?

Abstract

Handedness is challenging to estimate on skeletonized human remains when muscular markers of it are not available. This preliminary study anthropometrically explores if human teeth could be used to aid in identification of handedness. The dental data for this research is collected from a total of fifty (N=50) living adult volunteers with good dental health of which thirty‐nine (N=39) were right handed and eleven (N=11) left‐handed. Non‐invasive anthropometric data collected via digital dental caliper consists of the Maxillary and the Mandibular quadrants in which permanent incisors and canines were analyzed. The study reconfirms that males on average have larger teeth than females. The lateral incisors were not taken into consideration as they show minimal variations across the quadrants. The left‐handed males measure slightly larger central Maxillary incisors and canines at the left and the right quadrant than the right‐handed males. The left‐handed females have smaller central incisors than the right‐handed females on the Maxillary quadrants, but slightly larger central incisors on the Mandibular quadrants. Mandibular right quadrant central incisors are slightly larger among the left‐handed than they are among the right‐handed individuals of both sex.Support or Funding InformationSWCThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.