Evaluation of Morphometrics of Mandibles and Inter-lateral Pterygoid Plates in Sex and Age Determination: A Retrospective Observational Study Using Non-contrast Computed Tomography

Sex determination and age estimation using bones have always been some of the core fundamentals in forensic medicine. This study was performed at a tertiary care military medical center in Uttar Pradesh, India, which included 100 subjects and measured the inter-lateral pterygoid plate distance from the base of the skull, the mandibular inter-condylar distance, the inter-gonial distance, and the ratio between the inter-condylar and inter-gonial distance. The data was then evaluated against the population’s gender to demonstrate any significant associations within the data. The results showed that all the parameters measured were higher in males as compared to females, except for the condylar-gonial ratio, which showed higher values in females. The results also showed that the inter-gonial distance (mm), condylar-gonial ratio, and inter-lateral pterygoid plate distance (mm) performed a more important role as an indicator of gender demarcation with respect to increasing age. Normalized inter-condylar distance (male: 117.8190 ± 6.756 mm; and female: 117.818 ± 6.644 mm) did not show a significant difference (level of significance α = 0.05) of mean with respect to male ( n = 59) and female ( n = 41) groups. Inter-gonial distance (mm) (male: 97.619 ± 6.8810 mm; and female: 89.173 ± 5.640 mm); inter-condylar-gonial distance ratio (male: 1.235 ± 0.077; and female: 1.273 ± 0.077) and inter-lateral pterygoid plate distance (mm) (male: 57.729 ± 5.852 mm; and female: 55.422 ± 3.934 mm) showed significant difference (α = 0.05) of mean with respect to the gender group. Our study postulates that the bony landmarks on the skull and mandible can exhibit sexual dimorphism and age-related changes, which can be used to identify genders with ethnic and regional variations. The application of these metrical parameters along with morphological features could be a useful tool for sex determination and age estimation.