USING DENTAL ARCH ANATOMY FOR AGE AND SEX ESTIMATION IN COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH SURVEY

Main Article Content

Muhammad Naeem
Muhammad Yousaf
Amber Saba
Mamoona Shah
Sajila Raziq

Keywords

Dental arch anatomy Sex estimation, Age estimation, Community-based survey, Forensic dentistry

Abstract

: Proper determination of age and gender has significance in community health survey, forensic identification and epidemiological studies. Dental arch anatomy has been considered a consistent biological marker due to the comparative stability of dental structures to changes and degradations postnatally. Nevertheless, there are scarce local information as to its applicability to community-based populations.


Methodology: The present study was a community based cross-sectional study that was carried out at Kabir Medical College, Gandhara University, Peshawar, between January 2024 and January 2025. There was a total of 72 participants that had healthy permanent dentition. Dental impressions were taken, and casts of the studies were made to be measured with a digital Vernier caliper on maxillary and mandibular arch measures. Arch measurements in terms of sex and age were compared with the help of the corresponding statistical tests.


Results: Males depicted much broader dental arch sizes than females specifically in intercanine width, intermolar width, and arch perimeter. Significant differences were also found among the various age groups with highest arch dimensions recorded in young adults then a slow decrease in the number of older participants. The shape of dental arches expressed a strong relationship with sex, full arch and tapered arch being predominant among female and male respectively.


Conclusion: The dental arch anatomy has been found to be sexually dimorphic, and with age-related difference which can be measured, making its use as an auxiliary sex-estimation and age-group determination tool in community surveys. Dental measurements are simple and cheap and can prove to be a viable tool in an environment where a more advanced method of identification is not widely accessible.

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