title: Sex estimation based on deciduous and permanent dentition in a contemporary Spanish population.
abstract: Sex estimation of skeletal remains with satisfactory allocation accuracy represents an essential step in reconstructing the biological profile of unknown individuals in archaeological research and forensic practice. Teeth are among the most frequently recovered physical elements of an individual that remain after death due to their hardness, durability, and resistance to postmortem insults. This study was based on the deciduous and permanent dentition of 269 individuals (150 males and 119 females) from the Granada osteological collection of identified infants, young children, and adults (Granada, Spain). Mesiodistal, buccolingual, and diagonal crown and cervical diameters of both dentitions were measured, and logistic regression analyses were performed to create equations for sex discrimination. The results show that the first and second deciduous molars and the permanent canines are the teeth with the greatest sexual dimorphism, providing percentages of correct assignment of sex between 78.1 and 93.1% in deciduous dentition and between 79.4 and 92.6% in permanent teeth, depending on the dimensions used. The results indicate that this method may be applicable as an adjunct with other accepted procedures for sex estimation when fragmentary skeletal remains are encountered in archaeological excavations and in forensic contexts.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Antrhopology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Avenida de Madrid 11, Granada, 18012, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Viciano
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: López-Lázaro
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Alemán
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000885:Anthropology, Physical; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003442:Crowns; D019229:Dentition, Permanent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009811:Odontometry; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013030:Spain; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D019237:Tooth Cervix / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
keywords: Granada osteological collection; logistic regression; sexual dimorphism; tooth size