Conversion of palatal rugae pattern to scanable Quick Response code in an Arabian population

Abstract

Backgroud/purpose Palatal rugae (PR) are situated in the anterior part of the hard palate and possess unique and stable characteristics that can be used in human identification. Their pattern of orientation is established early in life and remains stable thereafter. The purposes of this study were to convert PRP into alphanumeric codes in order to generate scanable Quick Response (QR) codes, to demonstrate uniqueness of PRP using the codes in the study population, and to determine the sexual dimorphism of PRP in the study population. Materials and methods Orthodontic dental casts of 256 Saudi male and female patients were photographed after ensuring standardization. Individual rugae characteristics, strength and their displacement from incisive papilla and midpalatine raphe were recorded in the form of an alphanumeric code which was subsequently converted to a QR code. Computer assisted check was performed for possible match in the 256 alpha numeric codes while QR codes were scanned using a bar code scanner to determine uniqueness. Sexual dimorphism of palatal rugae (PR) was also analysed. Results All alphanumeric codes of the study population were unique. Mean number of PR in males and females differed significantly (P = 0.0001). Differences in rugae characteristics and strengths in males and females were also present. Conclusion The alphanumeric and QR code of the rugae pattern are unique for each individual and can be used for digital record keeping and person identification. A high degree of sexual dimorphism in PR exists in the studied Arab population studied.

A Study of Palatal Rugae Patterns and Maxillary Inter-Canine Distance in a Jordanian Population Sample

“…The current study recorded that a total number of rugae in Jordanian males outnumbered those in females and this may be attributed to the difference in jaw size confirmed by significantly wider intercanine arches in males. The same finding was observed by Simmons et al [30], Poojya et al [4], Indira et al [13] and Syed et al [32]. However, this contradicts the finding reported by Suhartono et al [29] where palatal rugae in Indonesian females were slightly higher than males.…”

“…This finding agrees with many previous studies done on different populations. [12,13,29,32]. Syed et al [32] explained that due to the greater use of right side teeth for mastication than the left side in the Saudi population, more people there developed palatal rugae characteristics on the right side.…”

“…[12,13,29,32]. Syed et al [32] explained that due to the greater use of right side teeth for mastication than the left side in the Saudi population, more people there developed palatal rugae characteristics on the right side. On the contrary, more rugae were observed on the left side in both genders in the study of Simmons et al [30] and Ibeachu et al [33].…”

Evaluation of palatal rugae pattern in different sagittal skeletal relationship adolescent subjects

“…[ 9 , 10 ] By their protected localization, palatal rugae are much less affected by burns, physical trauma, and other factors. [ 7 , 11 ] In addition, number, shape, and localization of palatal rugae remain unchanged throughout life and studies have suggested that they could be used as a fingerprint in most forensic cases. [ 1 , 12 ] Their applicability in cases of edentulous people highlights the superiority of forensic identification by palatal rugae.…”

Research on Correction Method of Palatal Rugae Morphology in Forensic Digital Identification System

“…The characteristic indicators adopted in the forensic identification must satisfy the conditions of uniqueness, universality, permanence, collability and identifiability (Clarke, 1994;Jain et al, 2000Jain et al, , 2016. Palatal rugae is an irregular soft tissue, which is located in the front third of the hard palate, and is asymmetrically distributed from the middle suture to the sides (Indira et al, 2011;Syed et al, 2016). The universality, stability and uniqueness of the palatal rugae pattern meet the requirements of forensic identification and can be used as a characteristic indicator for forensic identification (Taneva et al, 2017;Gautam et al, 2017;Gadicherla et al, 2017).…”