AN ANATOMICAL STUDY OF HUMAN MANDIBLE IN DETERMINATION OF SEX BY USING VARIOUS MORPHOLOGICAL AND MORPHOMETRIC PARAMETRES

Abstract

Determination of sex from unknown human mandible has an important role in forensic eld in relevance with Medicolegal issues to trace victim. Aim: To determine the sex of human mandible by using various morphological & morphometric data. Materials and methods: The study was conducted on 82 dry human mandibles of unknown sex. Based on morphological features the mandibles are grouped into Male (50) and Female (32) bones and the following morphometric parameters are taken for further statistical analysis. 1) Symphyseal height 2) Ramus height (Rt) 3) Ramus height (Lt) 4) Bimental width 5) Inter premolar width 6) Inter molar width 7) Bicoronoid width. Results: There was a statistically signicant difference found in the height of ramus (right), with mean value of 54.84 ± 4.5mm for males and 50.56 ± 5.4mm for females (P < 0.05), height of ramus (left) with mean value of 53.24 ± 4.3mm in males and 49.81 ± 5.03mm in females (P < 0.05) and bimental width with mean value of 42.96 ± 2.6mm in males and 41.58 ± 1.8mm in females (P < 0.05), whereas no signicant difference was found in symphyseal height, bicoronoid width, inter premolar width and inter molar width of male and female mandibles. The parameters used in this study gave an overall 76.8% accuracy in determining the sex of the mandible. Conclusion: Out of 7 parameters taken into account the interesting observation is that 3 parameters are most reliable and dependable for determination of sex. Out of these, 2 parameters have given most sensitive data and high accuracy rate for the determination of the gender.