title: Efficacy of Sex Determination from Human Dental Pulp Tissue and its Reliability as a Tool in Forensic Dentistry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sex determination is one of the primary steps in forensics. Barr body can be used as a histological method for identification of sex as it is found to be specific to female somatic cells and rare in male cells. To demarcate human dental pulp as an important identification tool of sex in forensic odontology (FO) and to evaluate the time period till which sex can be determined from pulp tissue using three stains H and E, Feulgen, and acridine - orange under fluorescence so as.
  
  
  METHODS
  90 pulp samples (45 males and 45 females) were subjected to Barr body analysis for determination of sex using light and fluorescent microscopy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Barr body was found to be positive for female samples and negative or rare in the male sample (<3%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Barr body from human dental pulp tissue can be used as a successful determinant of sex identification in FO.
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Microbiology, Yamuna Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Kaveri Surya
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Khanna
keywords: Barr body; forensic odontology; sex identification; tooth pulp