Citation

Gondivkar SM, Patel S, Gadbail AR, Gaikwad RN, Chole R, Parikh RV. J. Forensic Leg. Med. 2011; 18(7): 310-312.

Affiliation

Department of Oral Diagnosis, Medicine and Radiology, MGV's K.B.H. Dental College and Hospital, Nashik, Maharashtra, India.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jflm.2011.06.007

PMID

21907934

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify and compare the different morphological rugae patterns in males and females of western Indian population, which may be an additional method of identification in cases of crimes or aircraft accidents. A total of 108 plaster casts, equally distributed between the sexes and belonging to similar age-group, were examined for different biometric characteristics of the palatal rugae including number, shape, length, direction and unification and their incidence recorded. Association between these rugae biometric characteristics and sex were tested using chi-square analysis and statistical descriptors were identified for each of these parameters using the SPSS 15.0. The study revealed a statistically significant difference in the total number of rugae between the two sexes (P = 0.000). The different types of rugae between the males and females were statistically compared. The female showed a highly significant difference in the sinuous (P = 0.002) and primary type (P = 0.000) while the male had a significant difference in the unification (P = 0.005). The predominant direction of the rugae was found to be forward relative to backward. It may be concluded that the rugae pattern can be an additional method of differentiation between the male and female in conjunction with the other methods such as visual, fingerprints, and dental characteristics in forensic sciences.

Language: en