Odontometrics: A Key to Gender Determination

Abstract

Introduction: Identification of an individual is a prerequisite for certification of death and for personal, social, and legal reasons. Sex determination is one of the important parameters in forensic identification. Tooth being strongest component can resist bacterial decomposition and fire when rest of the body is damaged beyond recognition. Sexual dimorphism refers to the systemic difference in the form between individuals of different sexes within the same species. Teeth of various species are known to exhibit sexual dimorphism. The present study aims to evaluate the linear dimensions of permanent molars and canines for sex determination and to estimate their level of accuracy. Materials and methods: Sixty subjects were included in the study. Study casts were prepared and the dimensions of permanent canines and first permanent molars were measured as the greatest distance between the buccal and lingual surface as well as mesial and distal aspects of the crown by using digital vernier callipers. Results: Discriminant function analysis had shown that males have greater mean mesio-distal (MD) and bucco lingual (BL)/ labio-lingual (LL) dimensions for each tooth in comparison to females. Right upper canine showed the maximum accuracy followed by right lower and left upper canines. Out of four molars, right lower molar showed maximum accuracy of 86.7%. Conclusion: The present study showed the importance of linear dimensions of canines and molars in the assessment of sex and molars can be used as an alternative to canines when their evidence is missing in forensic investigations.

Assessment of arch length prediction based on CBCT measurements of inter-canine width in Egyptian population sample.

“…In our study we assessed 60 cases, 30 males and 30 females, the sample size comparatively larger than similar study for prediction of arch length conducted on model cast [14] and larger than another study where arch measurements obtained from CBCT cuts [8] In the present study, subjects with age between 18-25 years were selected because the growth and width of dental arch are completed and also, to exclude the effect of attrition of enamel occurring with age which may affect the enamel thickness or teeth sizes measurements. [24][25][26] Our results regarding upper and lower arch measurements including ICW, ISMW and upper IMW measurements showed high significant differences between males and females with greater values in males more than females, Which determines the significance of these measurements as valuable determinant parameter for differentiation between males and females (table 1) Many studies coincide with our results using several methods for arch measurements as using digital caliper on cast [27,28] or directly on oral cavity, stereomicroscope [29,30] and 3D CBCT model [8,24] . Moreover, males' values of both arch measurements exceed females' with high significant differences except for lower IMW, where there was non-significant difference between males and females but still males' values are more than females'.…”