A gender determination using mandibular canine index – a prospective study on Mumbai population and comprehensive review

Background: Teeth is considered a necessitous auxiliary in skeletal age, and determination of gender because teeth have post-mortem destruction and fragmentation resistance and they are last to be destroyed under extreme conditions like temperature, acid, or putrefaction. 
Aims: To evaluate the differences in odontometrics of mandibular canine between males and females and assessment of gender by calculating differences in the mandibular canine index (MCI) of male and female subjects. 
Settings and Design: Prospective, cross-sectional study. 
Subjects and methods: This study focus on evaluation of the existence of sexual dimorphism in the Mumbai population which included permanent mandibular canine of 100 male & 100 female subjects of age group 21 to 28 years. The mesio-distal width (MDW) of right and left canine and inter-canine distance (ICD) were measured. Subsequently, the mandibular canine index was calculated. 
Results: No evidence of any significant statistical difference between the right and left mandibular canines among the same gender, but when compared between male and female, mandibular left canine exhibited greater sexual dimorphism (10 %) as compared with the right canine (9.2 %). The standard MCI value for the Mumbai population was 0.24. 
Conclusions: MCI technique can be used as one of the simple, reliable, and adjuvant diagnostic method for gender determination in forensic dentistry. As it is influenced by various factors like genetics, epigenetics, geographical locations, etc.; it is recommended to carry out population based studies so that standardized values will help in gender determination precisely.