Sexual Diamorphism-An Odontometric Approach

Abstract

Background: Teeth being the most stable tissue in the body provide one of the best records for forensic investigation. Tooth morphology is influenced by cultural, environmental and racial factors. Present study attempts to establish the applicability of human dentition in sexual dimorphism in Indian population. It focuses to measure the odontometric parameters (i.e. mandibular canine width, mandibular intercanine distance, incisor width, mandibular premolar and molar arch width,), calculate dental indices (i.e. mandibular canine index, mandibular premolar and molar indices) and thereby prove their efficacy in determining the sex of an individual. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional prospective study was carried out on 200 MBBS students of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. After taking written informed consent the intraoral odontometric parameters were measured and the data was then analysed using SPSS version, 11.5. Results: Results showed that mandibular canine width, mandibular canine index, mandibular premolar arch width, mandibular molar arch width, premolar index and molar index shows significant difference (p value<0.001) between males and females. Maximum sexual dimorphism exists in mandibular canine width (12.678) and mandibular canine index (12.639), while incisor width and intercanine distance have no applicability in sex identification. Maximum correlation is shown by mandibular canine width (0.657) and least by molar index (0.393). The predictive value of sexing a person is highest by using mandibular canine width alone (43.2%) and least by molar index(15.5%), this predictiblity increases considerably (56.4%) when all the parameters are combined together. Conclusion: Thus, the usefulness of dentition as an aid in gender determination by odontometric analysis is well supported. Mandibular teeth and in particular the mandibular canine can form the key in gender differentiation.