Mandibular and maxillary canine as a tool for sex determination

Abstract

Introduction: Teeth measurement assist in the forensic and anthropological investigation to estimate age, confirm sex and race of a person. Maximum resistance to change in a natural disaster and also the most level of sexual dimorphism in canines makes them important in mentioned fields. Materials and Methods: During this study, an effort has been created to determine the sex of a person by using Canine Index (CI) which calculated for mandibular and maxillary canines. Mesio-distal (MD) breadth of canines and also the respective inter-canine distances (ICD) were tested using the independent samples t-test revealed significant sex dimorphism among the 100 individuals (50 males and 50 females) of Iranian population in the age group of 18-35 years. Conclusion: It is evident from our study that the maxillary canine index (MaxCI) is a valuable tool for determining sex.