Odontometric study of premolars for sex determination

Abstract

Objective: This cross-sectional blind study aimed to verify differences in odontometric measurements of premolars according to sex. Methods: Teeth size values were established for males and females based on a sample of 100 pairs of plaster models (50 from each sex) from dental students. Upper and lower, left and right, first and second premolars were examined with regard to their mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements and the distance between homologous premolars in each quadrant. Parametric tests were used with a 5% significance. The 95% confidence interval was determined to assess the differentiation power of each tooth. Results: There were statistically significant differences in all measures among the second premolars, with higher values in men (p<0.05). Among the first premolars, sexual dimorphism was found in the teeth 24 (mesiodistal length) and 34 and 44 (buccolingual length). As for homologous teeth, there was a significant difference between upper and lower premolars (p <0.001), with no distinction between right and left sides. The 95% confidence interval showed no overlapping values, thus indicating sex dimorphism in the mesiodistal measure of tooth 15 and in the buccolingual measure of teeth 15 and 34. Conclusion: We conclude that the tooth 15 has the greatest potential for sex dimorphism, which could be utilized for human identification in sex determination based on mesiodistal (females: 6.40 to 6.63; males: 6.64 to 6.89) and buccolingual (females: 9.28 to 9.54; males: 9.56 to 9.88) measurements.