Odontometric analysis of sexual dimorphism in permanent maxillary and mandibular molars

In the field of human osteology, sex estimation is an important step in developing a biological profile. There are a number of methods that can be used to estimate the sex of human remains, varying from visual assessments to metric analysis of sexually dimorphic traits. Teeth are one of the most durable physical elements in the human body and thus can be very successfully used for this purpose. The present study investigates the utility of cervical measurements for sex estimation through discriminant analysis. The permanent molar teeth of 75 skeletons (28 females and 52 males) from the Hasanlu site in north-western Iran were studied. Cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements were taken from both maxillary and mandibular first and second molars. Discriminant analysis was used to evaluate the accuracy of each diameter in assessing sex. The results showed that males had statistically larger teeth than females for maxillary and mandibular molars and cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements (P < 0.05). The range of classification rate was from 78.4% to 87.1% for the original and 78.4% to 85.5% for cross-validated data. The most dimorphic teeth were the maxillary and mandibular second molars, providing 87.1% and 86.1% correct classification rate respectively. The data generated from the present study suggested that cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements of molar teeth can be useful and reliable for sex estimation in Iranian archaeological populations. Odontometric analysis of sexual dimorphism in permanent maxillary and mandibular molars Kazzazi SM*1 and Kranioti EF1,2 1Edinburgh Unit for Forensic Anthropology, School of History Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom 2Department of Medical Imaging, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Greece *Corresponding author: Kazzazi SM, Edinburgh Unit for Forensic Anthropology, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, William Robertson Wing, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG, United Kingdom, E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]