Gender Determination Using Linear Measurements of Mandible on Orthopantamographs: A Discriminative Functional Analysis

Introduction: Identification of human remains carried out for various purposes. Most popular methods for identification are DNA analysis, fingerprint analysis, and forensic dental identification. These methods depend on the availability of the antemortem data for comparison. Dental profiling is a method of obtaining information from human skeletal remains which got no antemortem data. Most commonly used skeletal components for sex determination is the pelvis followed by the skull. In the present study, mandibular body and ramus calculations were carried out to determine sex. Aims & Objectives: 1. To measure and compare various measurements of mandibular body and ramus on Orthopantomography.2. To assess the usefulness of mandibular ramus in sex determination. Materials & Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using orthopantamographs of 100 subjects obtained from the Department of Oral medicine and radiology, Panineeya dental college. All the OPGs were taken using Diamaxis Planmeca 550 OPG machine with exposure parameters - 72mkv voltage and 12mA current. Measurements were carried out using Adobe photoshop CS5 extended software and were subjected to Discriminative Functional Analysis. Results: We evaluated 6 variables in mandibular ramus and body in which we got significance for 2 variables. Conclusion: This study concluded that mandibular ramus is sexually more dimorphic than the mandibular body.