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Forensic odontology is the application of dental principles to legal issues. It is an investigative aspect of dentistry that analyzes dental evidence for human identification. Sex determination is a subdivision of forensic odontology, and it is important especially when information relating to the deceased is unavailable. Sex determination becomes the first priority in the process of identification of a person by a forensic investigator in the case of mishaps, chemical and nuclear bomb explosions, natural disasters, crime investigations, and ethnic studies. Determination of sex/gender using skeletal remains presents a great problem to forensic experts, especially when only fragments of body are recovered. Forensic odontologist can assist other experts to determine the sex of the remains using teeth and skull traits. Various features of teeth such as morphology, crown size, and root length are characteristics for male and female sexes. There are also differences in the skull pattern and skull traits of two sexes. These will help forensic odontologists to identify the sex of the remains. The library dissertation contents and several articles and books were electronically searched in Google using the keywords "sex determination," "forensic dentistry," "sex determination in forensic dentistry." The contents were screened between 1950 and 2015 by going through the title and abstracts and full-text reading. The purpose of this article is to familiarize the different methods of sex determination.

Context: Forensic science is a branch of science that deals with the application of science and technology in solving a crime and this requires a multidisciplinary team effort. The word “Forensic” is derived from the Latin word, “Forensis” which means the study of public. Dental professionals should develop interests in contributing to legal issues. Aims: To study the lip prints among people of different races. Settings and Design: Descriptive study. Subjects and Methods: The present study comprised of ninety subjects of which Group A comprised of Africans, Group B comprised of Dravidian, and Group C of Mongoloid race. Each group was then further divided into 15 males and 15 females for whom the lip prints were recorded and evaluated. Statistical Analysis Used: ANOVA test. Results: ANOVA statistical analysis was used to compare three races of African, Dravidian, and Mongoloid races. The observed data among male and female were found to be significant with a P = 0.000492. Conclusion: The present study showed a significant difference in lip pattern among the three races. Perhaps future studies with a larger sample size and comparison between many other races may be done for better personal identification.

Background: Personal identification is an integral part of forensic investigations. For the same, DNA profiling and fingerprints are the most commonly used tools. But these evidences are not ubiquitous and may not necessarily be obtained from the crime scene. In such a scenario, other physical and trace evidences play a pivotal role and subsequently the branches employed are forensic osteology, odontology, biometrics, etc. A relatively recent field in the branch of forensic odontology is cheiloscopy or the study of lip prints. A comparison of lip prints from the crime scene and those obtained from the suspects may be useful in the identification or narrowing down the investigation. Aim: The purpose of the present study is to determine the gender and population variability in the morphological patterns of lip prints among brahmins, Jats, and scheduled castes of Delhi and Haryana, India. Settings and Design: Samples were collected from Jats, brahmins, and scheduled castes of Delhi and Haryana. The total sample size consisted of 1399 individuals including 781 males and 618 females in the age group of 8-60 years. Care was taken not to collect samples from genetically related individuals. The technique was standardized by recording lip prints of 20 persons and analyzing them. Materials and Methods: Lip prints were collected by using a corporate's invisible tape and analyzed using a hand lens. The patterns were studied along the entire length and breadth of both the upper and the lower lip. The data were analyzed by SPSS statistical package version 17 to determine the frequencies and percentages of occurrence of the pattern types in each population group and a comparison between males and females among the groups was carried out by using the z test. Results and Conclusions: The z-test comparison between patterns of males and females shows significant differences with respect to pattern types I′, II, III, and IV among brahmins; I′, II, III, IV, and Y among Jats; and I, I′, II, III, and V among scheduled castes. Thus, it can be concluded that the variability of the lip print pattern can help sex differentiation among groups and that more studies on the lip print pattern should be carried out to bring new dimensions to forensic anthropology and to aid the law enforcement agencies.

Context: It has been proved that lip prints are analogous to thumb prints. A correlation between thumb prints and sagittal dental malocclusion has already been established. Soft tissue is gaining more importance in judgement of deformity or identity of a patient. Aim: To find a correlation between sagittal skeletal jaw relation and lip prints. Settings and Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional, comparative, single-blind, hospital-based study. Materials and Methods: A total of 90 patients were categorized into skeletal class I, class II, and class III, comprising 30 patients in each group with equal gender distribution. Dolphin imaging (10.5) software was used for analyzing sagittal jaw relation. Lip prints obtained from these 90 patients were analyzed. Statistical Analyses Used: Karl Pearson's correlation coefficient, Chi-square test, t-test, Spearman's co-efficient, analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: It was observed that angle ANB (Angle formed between points nasion[N] to Subnasal[A] and nasion[N] to supramental [B]) and beta angle were statistically significant, revealing a strong negative correlation (-0.9060) with different classes of jaw relation. Significant difference was observed between genders in all the three classes. Significant difference was observed in relation to lip print and the quadrants of upper and lower lips. A statistical significance was noted on the right side of both upper and lower arches. Conclusion: This study shows that lip prints can be employed for sagittal jaw relation recognition. A further study on various ethnic backgrounds with a larger sample size in individual group is necessary for comparing lip prints and malocclusion.

Background: Lip prints are unique to each individual and can be used for personal identification. The lip prints show differences according to the race and the ethnic origins of a person. Aim: The objective of the study was to determine the predominant lip print type in a Punjabi population. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 106 students of our institution and comprised 56 males and 50 females in the age group of 18-25 years. The middle part of the lower lip was taken as study area. Analysis of lip print pattern was done according to Tsuchihashi Classification. Results: No two lip prints matched with each other. Type 1 pattern (vertical grooves that run across the entire lip) was found to be predominant in both males (51.02%) and females (43.47%) and there was no statistically observed difference between males and females in individual lip print types. Conclusion: In our study, lip prints did not match with each other, hence lip prints are unique and further studies with larger samples are required to obtain statistical significance.

Introduction: Establishment of a person's individuality is important for legal as well as humanitarian purpose and gender determination is an essential step in identifying an individual. In forensic odontology the sum total of all the characteristics of teeth and their associated structures provide a unique totality and forms the basis for personal identification. Aims and Objectives: To investigate the accuracy of various methods employed in sex determination such as cheiloscopy and mandibular canine index (MCI). Materials and Methods: The study group comprises adults between 20 and 25 years of age, who were assessed for gender identification using lip prints and MCI. The results were subjected to statistical analysis. Results: MCI and lip prints were found to be accurate and specific for sex determination. Conclusion: There is scope for use of these methods in criminal investigations, personal identification, and genetic studies. Thus, dental tissues make good witnesses although they speak softly, they never lie and they never forget.

Aim: Cheiloscopy is a forensic investigation technique that deals with identification of humans based on lips traces. The aim of this study is to establish the uniqueness of lip prints which aids in personal identification. Materials and Methods: The study group comprised of 200 subjects. The materials used were dark-colored lipstick, paper, cellophane tape, a brush, and a magnifying lens. Results: This study shows that lip prints are unique and permanent for each individual, and the lip prints among family members and between twins revealed different patterns on the whole with few similar grooves suggesting the existence of heredity in the lip prints. Conclusion: Our study showed that lip prints are unique to each individual and can be used for personal identification.

The importance of dental identification is on the increase year after year. With the passage of time, the role of forensic odontology has increased as very often teeth and dental restorations are the only means of identification. Forensic odontology has played a key role in identification of persons in mass disasters (aviation, earthquakes, Tsunamis), in crime investigations, in ethnic studies, and in identification of decomposed and disfigured bodies like that of drowned persons, fire victims, and victims of motor vehicle accidents. The various methods employed in forensic odontology include tooth prints, radiographs, photographic study, rugoscopy, cheiloscopy and molecular methods. Investigative methods applied in forensic odontology are reasonably reliable, yet the shortcomings must be accounted for to make it a more meaningful and relevant procedure. This paper gives an overview of the various experimental studies to aid in the identification processes, discussing their feasibilities and limitations in day-to-day practice.

Cheiloscopy is the study of lip prints. Lip prints are genotypically determined and are unique, and stable. At the site of crime, lip prints can be either visible or latent. To develop lip prints for study purpose various chemicals such as lysochrome dyes, fluorescent dyes, etc. are available which are very expensive. Vermilion (Sindoor used by married Indian women) and indigo dye (fabric whitener) are readily available, naturally derived, and cost-effective reagents available in India. Objective: To compare the efficacy of sudan black, vermilion, and indigo in developing visible and latent lip prints made on bone china cup, satin fabric, and cotton fabric. Materials and Methods: Out of 45 Volunteers 15 lip prints were made on bone China cup 15 lip prints on Satin fabric and 15 on Cotton fabric. Sudan black, vermilion and indigo were applied on visible and latent lip prints and graded as good (+,+), fair (+), and poor (-) and statistically evaluated. Results: The vermilion and indigo dye gives comparable results to that of sudan black for developing visible and latent lip prints.