Mental foramen: An Indicator for Gender Determination - A Radiographic Study

Background: The identification of sex from human remains is of fundamental importance in forensic science. Among the skeletal components pelvis and skull, with mandible being the practical element are used for gender determination. Location of mental foramen can be used to differentiate between sexes and such skeleton metric analysis done on radiographs are found to be of more accuracy. Aim: To assess the usefulness of mental foramen as an aid in gender determination. Materials and Methods: One hundred panoramic radiographs (50 males and 50 females) were selected for mental foramen analysis. Distance from superior and inferior borders of mental foramen to the lower border of mandible (SL and IL) of both sides were recorded by drawing tangents to the superior and inferior border of mental foramen and perpendiculars to the lower border of mandible from tangents. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis. Results: The obtained average values of SL and IL were found significantly higher in males than in females. But the distances for the right and left sides of a study sample were almost similar in both males and females and the results were non-significant. Conclusion: Analyzing mental foramen location can be considered as an additional radiographic method to determine gender. Keywords: Mental foramen, Forensic science, Panoramic radiograph, Gender determination