Background: Identification of skeletal remains is crucial in forensic medicine, and one of the important subjects for identifying skeletal remains is sex estimation. the present study aimed to investigate some of the anthropological features of the mandible used for forensic sex estimation with the use of CBCT images.
Materials & Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, CBCTs of eighty patients were studied. The studied variables were the mediolateral, and anteroposterior dimensions of the condyle, the ante gonial angle, the longitudinal axis of the condylar angle, and the vertical height of the coronoid process. The above parameters were measured using OnDemand software, and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software. Independent and Paired T-tests, Discriminant and Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used for statistical analysis. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
Results:The condyle mediolateral average dimension for males was significantly higher than for females (p<0.001). Three discriminant analysis models, the first based on the measurements on the right, the second based on the measurements on the left and the third based on mean measurements on both sides, were developed for sex estimation. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used for quality assessment of the fitted models and determination of their prediction ability. The ability of all three discriminant models to do sex estimation was obtained by at least 70%. Also, using the ROC curve, the third model was more efficient in sex estimation (area=0.869, p<0.001).
Conclusion:The mediolateral dimension of the mandibular condyle process is a useful parameter in sex estimation. Classification accuracy is more than 80% in all models. Different methods should be used together to make more accurate results of sex estimation and one method alone is not sufficiently advised.