Canine index - A tool for sex determination

Teeth are most useful tools in victim identification in the living as well as the dead in the field of forensic investigations. Their ability to survive in situations like mass disasters makes them constructive devices. Many authors have measured crowns of teeth in both males and females and found certain variations. Canines, reported to survive in air crash and hurricane disasters, are perhaps the most stable teeth in the oral cavity because of the labiolingual thickness of the crown and the root anchorage in the alveolar process of jaws. Measurement of mesiodistal width of the mandibular canines and inter-canine distance of the mandible provides good evidence of sex identification due to dimorphism. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of canine index (CI) in the determination of sex.