Studies on Human Mandibles

Abstract

Identification of human skeletal remains is a critical problem and is very important in medicolegal and anthropological work. The determination of sex of an individual is important and necessary both in the living and the dead for medico legal purpose. It is particularly essential when only skeletal remains are available. In the living and the dead, in fresh conditions. Difficulty arises when sex is to be decided based on a few skeletal remains. Good number of human mandibles was collected from the burial grounds in and around Tirupati. They were sorted out and intact adult normal mandibles were selected for the present work.For each mandible accurate measurements were taken for 22 variables namely, (1) Symphyseal height, (2) Coronoid height, (3) Minimum breadth of ramus, (4) Maximum breadth of ramus, (5) Height of ramus – right, (6) Height of ramus – left, (7) Body height, (8) Body thickness, (9) Body length,(10) Bigonial dimeter, (11) Bicondylar diameter, (12) Bimental breadth, (13) Mandibular angle, (14) Length of lowe jaw, (15) Interincisor width, (16) Interprmolar width, (17) Intermolar width, (18) Arch length, (19) Anthropometric arch length, (20) Anthropometric arch width, (21) Bicornoid width and (22) Mandibular index.The measurements were compared to the values of known sex to distinguish the sex of mandible.