Gender Determination using Gonial Angle - A Panoramic Study among South Indian Population

Abstract

Introduction: Sex determination is a valuable and important factor in the forensic dentistry. Mandible has several useful traits for sex determination. Forensic practitioners study this by two methods: morphological and metrical analyses. Among various methods, the gonial angle may be used to differentiate male and female strongly to express sexual dimorphism. Aim: To analyse the gender determination using gonial angle as panoramic study among south indian population. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted among 200 individuals. Gonial angle is a measurement taken by measuring the angle between the 2 tangents from the gonion.As a standard procedure, measurement of right gonial angle and left gonial angle were carried out by Adobe Photoshop and the results were recorded and analysed statistically using SPSS tool. Results: The mean right gonial angle  for males is 95.25 and for females is 95.22 The mean left gonial angle for males is 95.39 and for females is 95.15. The significance of the right gonial angle  is P=0.874 and significance of the left gonial angle is P= 0.147. The total mean value for right gonial angle was found to be 95.23 and for left gonial angle is 95.27. Therefore, there was no significant difference found between the right  and left gonial angle.   Conclusion: Within the limitations of the study, there is no statistically significant difference observed between males and females in the gonial angle measurements. The Gonial angle measurements can be used to determine the gender and the growth pattern of the mandible. Measurement of gonial angle has its own surgical importance too in the field of orthodontics and therefore future studies should be carried out using larger samples to get reliable results.