Assesment of Cranial Traits for Gender Determination by Using 3D Models: A Retrospective CBCT Study

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Gender determination is the first stage in identification of human remains, as it is essential for accurately assessing other biological traits.The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cranial traits for gender determination in a Turkish subpopulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS:For this study, 5 cranial traits including nuchal crest, mental eminence, supraorbital margin, mastoid process, and glabella were evaluated on three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of 239 individuals.The cranial traits were scored between 1 and 5 according to the diagram developed by Buikstra and Ubelaker.The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, chi-squared test, and discrimination analysis. RESULTS:The gender was estimated in two ways according to the mean score of cranial traits, and discriminant analysis.The accuracy rate was 94.1% according to the mean score of cranial traits and 95.8% according to the discrimination analysis.Among the cranial traits evaluated, the most distinctive structure was determined to be the glabella. CONCLUSION:According to the results of the present study, 3D reconstructions of CBCT can be used to evaluate the cranial traits and are an effective way of determining gender with high accuracy.