Morphological Characteristics and Individual Differences of Palatal Rugae

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to determine the number, symmetry, shape and individual characteristic of palatal rugae. Methods: In our study, we performed on subjects ages 16 to 57 (23.01 ± 7.12), ranging from a total of 230 (108 female and 122 male). Alginant impression material from each took dimensions of the upper jaw. Then casts were obtained by pouring hard casts. The shapes, lengths, and directions of rugae measured on these casts. The palatine photos were taken by using a mobile phone-Samsung brand with 12 MP camera and an orthodontic mirror. The casts and photographs were selected at random belonging to 100 subjects. Selected at random 10 photographs were matched among 100 casts. The ratios of correct matches were determined. Results: In our study, the total number of palatal rugae was found as 9.49 ± 1.87 in females and 9.42 ± 1.92 in males. The most detected rugae pattern was wavy on both females and males. The most rarely seen rugae pattern was converged in the males and circular in the females. Regarding lengths of rugae, the most detected rugae pattern was the primary one. Regarding the direction of rugae pattern, positive-sided one was the most dominant in both genders. We determined the ratio of matching the casts belonging to Palatine with the photos as 63.5%. The number of rugae aged under 18 and above 41 was found to be statistically significant (P = 0.003), but the number of curved and positive-sided rugae in older ages was not found to be statistically significant. Conclusions: Compared with data from earlier studies, the shapes, length, and direction of palatal rugae were seen specific in every individual, and it was seen to have discriminating characteristics among different populations. The possible differences in individual specific palatal rugae require further studies involving larger samples.

The Pattern of Palatal Rugae in sub-population of Pakistani adults

“…Upon further analysis of the right and left sides of palatal rugae, there was no statistical significance in the total number of rugae on either side with sinuous type being the dominant one. This aspect of the present result is congruent with Shetty KS et al, Wazir SS et al, Gezer R et al who discovered that there was no difference in the quantity of rugae between different races and palatal sides 21,22,23 . Similarly, Paliwal A et al, also supports this finding by exploring sinuous shape as a single configuration of rugae dominating on both sides of the palate 1 .…”

A Morphometric Analysis of Palatal Rugae Patterns in a Saudi Arabian Population

“…Secondary types did not differ between the age groups. The findings support but differ slightly from other studies reporting a significant difference between the age groups and the total number of rugae [ 20 ]. We found that the total number of fragmentary rugae was less in the older age groups.…”

“…Only a few studies have looked into the influence of age on palatal rugae [ 18 - 20 ]. It was the purpose of this study to explore the patterns of palatal rugae in a Saudi population and to examine the differences based on age that could aid in identifying an individual.…”

The Heritability of Palatal Rugae Morphology Among Siblings*†

“…This study group showed more backward directed rugae compared to forward and perpendicular rugae which is similar to the Bengali population (28). In contrast, forward directed rugae was predominant in Sudanese, Egyptians, Turkish, Gujarati, and Indians (22,27,(29)(30)(31)(32)(33). Generally, the population worldwide would show more forward directed rugae because there is a decrease in backward directed rugae with age.…”

“…The rugae were predominantly wavy which is commonly documented in most populations such as in Serbians, Turkish, Australians, Iraqi, Bosnians, Indians and Africans (20–26) and Chileans with sinuous patterns (13). In contrast, Egyptians and Indonesians had predominantly line rugae (3,27) alike Iranians and Koreans who have straight rugae patterns (16,19).…”