Morphology of lip print patterns among Indian and Malaysian population- a tool for racial and gender identification

Introduction: Lip prints are like finger prints; Unique and never same in two different individuals. Lip prints are distinctive and do not change during the life of the person. Cheiloscopy can be of special interest in cases where there are no finger prints available and as a necroidentification technique Aims: To identify different types of lip print patterns in North Indian, South Indian and Malaysian populations. To assess gender based on lip print patterns among Indian (North and South) and Malaysian population. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 128 subjects - 102 were Indians and 26 were Malaysians. Lip prints were analyzed based on Tsuchihashi’s classification. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 for Pearson’s Chi- Square tests and p-value. Results: Lip print pattern findings were found to have accordance with few other researches done in similar population setting. Among Indian subjects - Type 2 and Type 4 patterns are predominant. Among Malaysian population - Type 2 and 1’ are predominant. In Indian and Malaysian male population - Type 2 and Type 4 are predominant. In Indian and Malaysian Female population - Type 2 and Type 1 are predominant. Conclusion: In the study, different types of lip print patterns in North Indian, South Indian and Malaysian population with respect to ethnicity and gender were studied. Further research on this topic, with a larger sample, would help to increase the accuracy of this study, strengthen the research field of Cheiloscopy and make this study fruitful.