Predictive Accuracy of Mandibular Ramus Flexure as a Morphologic Indicator of Sex Dimorphism in Jordanians Exactitud Predictiva de la Flexura de la Rama Mandibular como Indicador Morfológico de Dimorfismo Sexual en Jordanos

The present study investigated the validity of mandibular ramus flexure in sex differentiation among young Jordanian adults using Orthopantomographic images in a double blind study. A normative sample comprised of 419 images was selected, of which 126 belonged to male patients and 293 images to females. The exclusion criteria used in the selection involved excluding images that showed marked loss of mandibular molars, over erupted, tilted, anomalous molars and teeth or mandibles associated with pathology. Each image was examined for the presence of a flexure on the posterior margin of the ramus at the occlusal plane. The posterior margin of the ramus was carefully traced graphically and the occlusal plane level was delineated as guided by the height of cusp tips at the occlusal surfaces of the mandibular molars. The ramus flexure was more accurately diagnostic for females (94.6%), than for males (47.6%); this gave rise to an overall diagnostic accuracy of 70.9% which is far below the reported 90.6-99.0% by Loth & Henneberg. Our results, however, agreed with some reported findings of other researchers. In conclusion, ramus flexure provides a moderately acceptable predictive accuracy and could be considered as a supplementary rather than a definitive mean of sex determination. In sexing unknown skeletal remains, it is necessary to employ as many methods or traits as possible instead of relying on one morphological trait.