Evaluation and comparison of forehead angulations using cephalometrics between male and female human subjects.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Sex identification is one of the important aspects of forensic sciences and many methods have been widely used for the same. Use of cephalometrics to establish age, sex and race has been adopted by forensic odontologists. But forehead angulations and quantitative measurements of its curvature to establish sex have been less explored. With above background a cross-sectional study was designed to evaluate and compare the angulations of the forehead at defined points between human male and female subjects. Materials and Method: Present study was conducted on 100 subjects. Lateral cephalogram obtained from 50 males and 50 females with age range of 18-26 years were transcribed on acetate sheet. Angulations on forehead and one linear measurement were calculated. Data was stored for analysis. Results: Mean values of angle A, B and C were lower and AD segment was higher in male group when compared to female group. Comparison of mean values of angle B and AD segment between males and females showed statistically significant difference (p value < 0.05). Coefficient of variation of AD segment was least among all variables. Conclusion: We concluded that, angle of curvature was higher in females as compared to males supporting the round forehead in female. Further, the proposed hairline in male was found to be slightly higher when compared to female.