Gender Identification Study of a Dry Human Mandible by Assessing its Measurable Dimensions

Abstract

It's never an easy task for the forensic experts when it comes to opining on sex determination from dry bones. Some mandibles, rare though, do puzzle us while opining on sex in identifying an individual. Thus, more research was felt needed, and therefore, measurable parameters of mandible like maximum chin width (MCW), angular width (AW), angular length (AL) and maximum mandibular length (MML) were identified and studied by the author of the present study. Dry mandibles, preliminarily assessed for gender, and greater than 17 years of age, were included. Dry mandibles exhibiting sexual dimorphism and/or of lesser age were excluded from the study. The data thus obtained was tabulated, statistically analyzed and discussed. Mean, standard deviation and standard error of mean were calculated using the data obtained, and statistical significance with p<0.05 was assessed. Significant statistical results were attained by the present study, and thus, can be reliably used in sex differentiation of adult dry mandibles.