Gender Differentiation using Maxillary Sinus

Identification is necessary for humanitarian and emotional reasons and for many legal issues, particularly for family members. In recent reports, identification based on dental information is considered to be highly efficient, reliable, and rapid.4-7 Although many methods are followed for gender differentiation and age estimation, still identification of skeletal remains and decomposed bodies remains a difficult task in forensic medicine. Generally, bones, such as skull, pelvis, and long bones, are used for gender identification. Unfortunately, most of the times, these bones may be in a fragmented or in incomplete state.8 Hence, denser bones like maxillary sinus or zygomatic bone can be utilized for gender determination. It is noted that although skull and other bones are badly disfigured, maxillary sinus appears to be intact.8-10 Hence, it is necessary to look into the other areas of skeleton for identification of gender when the conventional methods are inconclusive. Maxillary sinus is the largest paranasal sinus, which is pyramidal in shape, situated in the body of the maxilla.11 Analysis of shape and dimension of maxillary sinus has been applied for estimation of age, gender differentiation, and also in identification of ethnic groups.8,9,12,13 Within our study, we aimed to check the reliability and accuracy of using dimensions of maxillary sinus on lateral cephalogram for gender determination.