Palatal Rugae Pattern in Korean Children and Adolescents

Abstract

To determine whether the morphological features of the palatal rugae are associated with sex and age in children and adolescents. Methods: A total of 300 diagnostic models of the palatal rugae of children and adolescents were collected. The models were classified into male and female and<13-and ≥13-year-old groups. The palatal rugae pattern, and the number and length of palatal rugae plicae, were analyzed. Results: The number of palatal rugae plicae was higher in females than in males, however, the difference was negligible. In the group aged 13 years or more, the number was higher in the male group on the left side. There was no association between the number of palatal rugae plicae and age group. The type I pattern was the most common in both males and females. The length of palatal rugae plicae was greater in males than in females. There was no association between the length of palatal rugae plicae and age group. Conclusions: The number and length of palatal rugae were associated with sex, but the morphological features of the palatal rugae could not distinguish between children and adolescents. These findings suggest that the palatal rugae have limited value for identification of individuals.

The Heritability of Palatal Rugae Morphology Among Siblings*†

“…There is an increase in palatal rugae lengths with overall craniofacial growth (16). Additionally, studies have shown that the rugae patterns such as the unification, number of fragmentary rugae, shape, and direction are influenced by orthodontic treatment which is in concordance with zero heritability values in our study (1).…”

“…In our study, the M-M had significantly longer first right rugae as compared to the F-F and F-M sibling groups. Studies have reported that males had longer rugae lengths than females due to larger dimensions of the head in males in comparison with females (15)(16)(17). Similarly, it has been postulated that males had more primary rugae and lesser number of secondary rugae as compared to females because males have wider palates.…”

“…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). Although the terminology is different due to the various classifications, wavy and sinuous patterns are similar in shape whereas line and straight patterns are analogous.…”

Application of Calcorrugoscopy for Assessing Variations in Palatal Rugae Pattern among the Native Population of Riyadh Province in Saudi Arabia

“…A study by Elmomozen and Elsherbini in 2017 found a gender variation in the number of palatal rugae where the mean value for females was found to be 8.85 ± 1.41 and 9.38 ± 1.13 in males (4) . The lowest number of rugae was reported by Kim et al among 5-18-year-old patients in Korea, and it ranged from the right side (17) . While we disregarded rugae < 2 mm, others would have included them.…”

“…Various studies have reported sexual dimorphism in the number of rugae (16,17) . In our study, females had a more significant number of palatal rugae than males, contrary to most earlier studies.…”