Significance of mandibular canine index in sexual dimorphism and aid in personal identification in forensic odontology.

BACKGROUND

Forensic odontology is basically the science dealing with establishing identity by teeth and has played an important, often crucial, role in the identification of victims of mass disasters. Among all teeth, the mandibular canines are found to exhibit greatest sexual dimorphism. Hence, this study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of mandibular canine index (MCI) in the determination of sex.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted on 62 subjects (31 males, 31 females). Mesiodistal diameter of mandibular canines was measured with the help of digital Vernier calipers. Intercanine distance was measured with the help of a divider. The standard MCI value is used as a cut off point to differentiate males from females. Statistical analysis was done using t-test.

RESULTS

The width of mandibular canine was higher in males than in females, which was statistically significant. The left canine is found to exhibit greater sexual dimorphism, i.e., 7.62% as compared with right canine, i.e., 6.85%. The calculated standard MCI for both male and female was 0.247. With these calculations, the overall percentage of sex determination was 79.03%.

CONCLUSION

The ability to determine gender using Standard MCI was estimated to be 73.33% in males and 80% in females. It was concluded that with standard MCI, it was possible to detect sex for forensic purposes.