Determination of age and sex in palatal rugas; example of Çorum province

Background:Itaimstodeterminetheusability of uniqueandindividualpalatalrugaesuch as fingerprintsforageestimationandsexdetermination in thepopulation of Çorum province, toexaminethehypothesisthatthenumber of palatalrugaemaydecreasewithage, andtodeterminewhetherinferences can be mad efor identificationfromrugaeshapes, locationsandnumbers. Method:200(110 femaleand 90 male) patients, whoappliedto Çorum Oral andDentalHealth Center forexaminationandtreatment, weretakenwithalginateimpressionmaterial, preparedbycasting hard plaster, andwerewritten on thegenderandage of thepatientsmaxillarychinmodelswereused. 1,416 palatalrugaeweremeasuredwith a digitalcaliperwith 0.01 mm precision on maxillarchin plaster models. Intheevaluation of palatalrugaemeasurements, Thomas andKotzeclassificationsystemandshape/directionclosedclassificationsystemwereused. Results:Thisstudyrevealedthatthenumber of women'srugae is veryclosetothenumber of men'srugae in thepopulation of Çorum province, andwith a verysmalldifference, thenumber of women'srugae is higher. A statisticallysignificantnegativemoderatecorelationwasfoundbetweenthenumber of palatalrugaeandage in bothwomenand men(p>0.05).Themostcommonpalatalrugaetypeswerefoundto be winged(%34,87) in femalesandlinear (%32,34) in males. Inthedistribution of palatalrugaelengthsbygender, it wasobservedthatthemostcommonmeasurementtype in bothsexeswasthe "primary(>10mm)" type. Conclusions:Studiesinvolvinglargesamples of differentethnicoriginsanddifferentgroups in thesamepopulation in terms of size, shape, directionandnumber of palatalrugaeshould be conducted. Iftherearedifferentpalatalrugaeshapes, theyshouldalso be classified. Inaddition, thenumber of palatalrugae, whichdecreaseswithage, should be evaluated in largesamples. Features of palatalrugae can be used as an additionaltool in forensicidentificationprocedures in age, sex, reconsiderationstudiesandethnicitystudies.