Radiographic evaluation of the mandible to predict age and sex in subadults

Abstract

Objective Forensic examinations involve the identification of age and sex from living or mortal remains. The mandible comprises several growth parameters and is often recovered intact, making it an important tool for radiological identification. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the accuracy of various mandibular measurements on digital panoramic images in indicating sex and age in a subadult population. Methods: Panoramic images from 1,100 individuals (550 males, 550 females) ranging in age between 3 and 13 years were divided into 11 groups according to age. Ten mandibular linear dimensions (ramus height, condylar ramus height, coronoid ramus height, maximum ramus breadth, minimum ramus breadth, bigonial breadth, bicondylar breadth, bimental breadth, lateral length of mental foramen, vertical length of mental foramen) and gonial angle were measured bilaterally. Univariate discriminant and regression analyses were performed to determine the most significant predictors of sex and age. Results All linear dimensions were higher for males than females for all age groups. Gonial angle did not vary significantly by gender. Discriminant analysis showed linear measurements and gonial angle exhibited poor accuracy in sex determination. Despite a positive correlation between linear measurements and a negative correlation between gonial angle and age, the discriminant analysis found that age estimations made using all the recorded variables had an accuracy of only 66.72%. Conclusion In line with previous research on different populations, findings for the selected subadult population sample showed that the growing mandible does not present sufficient sexual dimorphism to be useful for sex and age estimations.