Correlation of Dermatoglyphic Interpretation with Oral Diseases- Revisited

Corresponding author: Amit Manak, PG Student,Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Darshan Dental College and Hospital, Udaipur. Email: [email protected] This article may be cited as: Manik A , Parekh M, Varshney R and Vyas T.Correlation of Dermatoglyphic interpretation with oral diseasesrevisited. Int J Com Health and Med Res 2016;2(2):56-59 Article Received: 18-02-16 Accepted On: 05-05-2016 NTRODUCTION The word ‘dermatoglyphics’ is derived from two Greek words i.e. derma, skin and glyphe, carve. It refers to the epidermal skin ridge formations which appear on the fingers, palms of the hands and soles of the feet. This term was coined by Harold Cummins in 1926. 1 The science of dermatoglyphics involves the study of epidermal ridges present on the surface of palms, fingers, soles and toes. These epidermal ridges form well-defined patterns that characterise individuals and they have been found useful in the clinical diagnoses of hereditary diseases. Epidermal ridge patterns form early in fetal development and they remain unchanged throughout life and hence they could be used to indicate gene or chromosomal abnormalities. 2 Abnormalities in these areas are influenced by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors, but only when the combined factors exceed a certain level, can these abnormalities be expected to appear. 3 Fuller IC 4 conducted a study to evaluate dermatoglyphics of patients suffering from diabetes, schizophrenia, duodenal ulcer, asthma, and various cancers and reported significant differences in the digital ridge counts, maximum atd angles, and distal palmar loop ridge counts have been found. A discriminant analysis of the digital ridge counts was performed and the function was used to attempt differential diagnosis between these conditions on dermatoglyphic evidence alone. However, diagnostic trial failed, and the author revealed that the possible reasons for its failure are the relevance of dermatoglyphics is not to diagnosis, but to prognosis; not to the definition of existing disease, but to the identification of people with the genetic predisposition to develop certain diseases. Thus, I From the time of early civilization, the characteristic pattern of the hands have been an area of interest to predict the future. Over the years of scientific research, these features of hand has come to be considered as a useful tool in the diagnosis of psychological, genetic and other medical conditions. Epidermal ridge patterns form early in fetal development and they remain unchanged throughout life and hence they could be used to indicate gene or chromosomal abnormalities. Thus, the dermatoglyphic patterns may be utilized effectively to study the genetic basis of various diseases in developing counteries, as it is a noninvasive, inexpensive and effective tool for screening and foretell the probability of occurrence of various diseases. The present review aims to discuss various pattern of fingerprints and briefly discusses importance of fingerprints in prediction of oral diseases.