Evaluation of Sexual Dimorphism with Mandibular Parameters by Digital Panoramic Radiography

Sex determination is the first step of personal identification in the field of forensics and is essential for reconstructive profiling. The skull appears to be the most reliable part of the skeleton, apart from the pelvis, in sex determination. Tooth and bone are used as a key tool for personal identification due to their high resistance to decomposition and degradation. The present study aimed to evaluate the sexual dimorphism with mandibular parameters by digital panoramic radiography.

In this analytical-descriptive study, the mandibular parameters in 315 females and 217 males, including the ramus height, the coronoid height, the mental height, the mandible body height, the minimum width of the ramus, the distance between the right and left gonial angle, the distance between the right and left condyle and the distance between the right and left coronoid, were measured in the panoramic radiography via SCANORA software. Discriminant function and canonical regression methods were used to determine the predictability of mandibular parameters in sexual dimorphism. P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

All parameters were statistically significant between genders (P<0.05). The mean of all parameters, except the gonial angle, in males, was higher than that of the female. Percentage of correctly classified in discriminant function based on the central and right side and left side dimorphic parameters of the mandible is 82.5% and 82.9%, respectively.

According to the present study, panoramic radiography can be considered as a valuable tool in sex determination (with an accuracy of 82.5%), and all parameters of mandible had sexual dimorphism and showed that they are reliable parameters with a total accuracy of 82.5% in the sexual dimorphism.