Study of mandibular canine teeth dimorphism in establishing sex identity in Gujarat region.

ABSTRACT

Mandibular canines exhibit the greatest sexual dimorphism amongst all teeth. The present study was performed on 368 healthy MBBS students of Medical College, Bhavnagar (216 males, 152 females) of 18 – 24 years with the aim to investigate whether any correlation existed between odontometric measures including mandibular canine index, and sex determination in the year of 2006. Mean value of intercanine distance was higher in males than females and the difference was statistically highly significant (p value<0.01). Comparison of mean values of left and right mandibular canine widths exhibited lesser values in females. The variation in right and left mandibular canine width between males and females was highly significant (p value<0.01). The right and left mandibular canine index (MCI) among genders showed significant difference. Our study conclusively establishes the existence of a definite statistically significant sexual dimorphism in mandibular canines and MCI.