Role of Dermatoglyphics as a Diagnostic Tool in Medical Disorders

Dermatoglyphics is the art and science of the study of surface markings and patterns of ridges on the skin of the fingers, palm, toes and soles. It is a useful tool for investigations into conditions with a suspected genetic basis. Over the past centuries, dermatoglyphics has evolved as a useful tool in the field of genetics, anthropology, biology, medicine and dentistry. Current scenario of medical dermatoglyphics is such that the association between fingerprint patterns and various systemic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, kidney diseases, hypertension, psychosis, breast cancer, alcohol embryopathy, epilepsy, congenital heart diseases, bronchial asthma, auto-immune diseases and many others has been established. This article discusses the advanced and recent applications of dermatoglyphics in diagnosing several dental, oral and systemic disorders. It also highlights the usefulness of dermatoglyphics as a diagnostic tool for many systemic conditions in the field of medicine. Dermatoglyphics is an accessible, inexpensive, useful, reliable and noninvasive method of exploring the genetic associations of oral, craniofacial and systemic disorders. Thus, apart from personal identification, dermatoglyphics serves as an excellent tool in screening population for several medical and dental disorders.