Morphometric Study of External Nose for Sex Determination and Ethnic Group Differentiation

Abstract

Background: External nose is one of the anatomical structures that give a look in an individual’s face. The
 size and shape of the nose vary from one individual to another individual.
 Aim: To determine the sex based on morphometry of external nose.
 Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 100 Malaysians and 100 South Indians of
 age group (20 to 30 years). The morphometric measurements of the external nose such as nasal length (NL),
 nasal breadth (NB), nasal height (NH), nasal depth (ND), width of columella (WC), nostril breadth (NB),
 alar length (AL) and alar width (AW) were measured using digital caliper by standard procedure.
 Results: The nasal width was found to be larger in Malaysian females as compared to that of Indian females.
 The nasal height was found to be larger in Indian males followed by Indian females and vice versa in
 Malaysian population. When compared among the population the nasal length was lengthier in Indian
 population and in Malaysian males when compared to Malaysian females. Alar length slight difference was
 found between male and female of both the population when compared on both the sides. The alar width
 was found to be more in Indian population when compared to Malaysian population. The nostril breadth was
 found to be wider in Malaysian population when compared to the Indian population.
 Conclusion: The present study shows that their do exist gender difference in nasal morphometry and nasal
 index of both males and females.