Gender Determination Through Dental Morphology: A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVES

Microesthetics portrays the tooth morphology, shape, size, shade, and color. The debate of whether microesthetics may or may not be related to gender is the main focus or interest of our study. The aim of our study is to assess if dentists are able to identify the gender of the patient by evaluating the dental morphology using intraoral photographs only (retracted lips and cheeks).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study was a retrospective cross-sectional survey among general dentists and dental specialists practicing in Kuwait. A sample of 151 participants was approached through a multi-stage random sampling method. Data were collected through personal visits to each of the public dental centers. Of these 151 selected, a sample of 10 participants was randomly selected to repeat their participation and answer the questionnaire a second time 2 months after their initial partaking. The statistical analysis for the study was conducted using chi-square tests of goodness of fit and Pearson chi-square. The objectives of this were to compare the dentists' current performance to the task to see if it was due to chance, to compare their previous performance to chance, and to compare their previous and current performances using the McNemar test to determine if any significant differences existed.

RESULTS

In our study, tooth morphology was linked to gender significantly by the participants, which showed that despite some differences, it may still be identified. However, orthodontists did not perform significantly better than other specialties.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, our study showed that dentists are able to identify or determine gender based on photographs, which is inconsistent with our starting hypothesis. Overall, the study's findings suggest that both orthodontists and dentists from other specialties could identify an individual's gender based on smiling photographs.