A description of lip print pattern and lip shapes in children’s and their parents among Abbottabad population in KPK, Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: To assess for any peculiar lip prints in relation to the lip shapes of individual, and determine the most common lip print type among the members of biological families. Study Design: Descriptive study. Setting: Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Women Medical & Dental College, Abbottabad. Period: January 2018 to June 2018. Material & Methods: A total of 216 individuals (father, mother, both children’s), who underwent descriptive study of lip impression collection without any anesthesia or drug, were enrolled into the present study. Father, mother and two babies of each family were selected. Lip prints of Father, mother and both babies of each family were recorded. Each lip of 54 offspring’s was compared with the corresponding lip of his/her father mother and other baby. The segments of each lip of the offspring’s that matched/ resembled with either of father mother and biological babies were recorded. Results: Out of 54-total families, biological babies of 19(35.18%) families observed resemblance with father, whereas biological babies of 35(64.81%) families observed resemblance with mother. There was no definite identical lip print observed in any of the children. Furthermore, the prevalence of Type II lip prints was higher type present in males and in females. We observed that lip shape 7 was the most frequent lip shape type in most of individuals. Conclusion: Lip prints of study participants did not clearly match with each other, evenly distributed in both genders and distinctive similar to finger prints. The data did not show any specific association of the lip print type with lip shape. It is considered feasible to apply lip prints features in personal identification.