Rugoscopy: An Adjunctive Diagnostic Tool for Malocclusion?

Abstract

Context:Palatal rugae (PR) are regularly used in forensic dentistry for identification of individuals. PR gets established early in intra-uterine life and remains stable thereafter, thus considered as a stable land mark. Correlation of PR with different occlusal relations may aid in diagnosing malocclusions at an early stage.Aims: Identification of distinctive features of PR in different classes of dental malocclusion and to identify the most common pattern in Malaysian students. To explore probability of PR as an adjunctive tool for categorizing malocclusions.Method and Material: PR in casts of 70 Malaysian students aged 19–23 years demonstrating Class I, Class II and Class III malocclusions were studied. The number, pattern, orientation and strength of rugae both on left and right side of mid-palatal raphe were determined and statistically analysed by anova test for different categories of malocclusions.Results:Class I malocclusion showed similar bilateral orientation of all the parameters when compared to other two types of malocclusion. PR in all malocclusions showed a predominantly wavy pattern but forking-diverging type was mainly in fragmentary rugae. The number of primary, secondary and fragmentary rugae was greatest in number in Class II malocclusion when compared to class I and class III.Conclusions: This study provides evidence of a distinct pattern of PR in Class I and Class III patients and but to ascertain its statistical significance, further research may be conducted with a larger sample size.