title: Can stature be estimated from tooth crown dimensions? A study in a sample of South-East Asians.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Stature estimation is an important step during medico-legal and forensic examination. Difficulty arises when highly decomposed and mutilated dead bodies with fragmentary remains are brought for forensic identification like in mass disaster or airplane crash. The body remains could be just a jaw with some teeth. The objective of this study was to explore if the stature of an individual can be determined from the tooth crown dimensions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 201 volunteers participated in this study. The stature and clinical crown dimensions (length, mesiodistal and labiolingual diameters) of maxillary anterior teeth were measured. Correlation between crown dimensions and stature was analyzed by Pearson correlation test. Regression analysis was used to get equations for estimation of stature from crown measurements. The regression equations were applied in the same sample of volunteers that was used to obtain the equations. The reliability and accuracy of the equations were checked in another sample of volunteers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Length and mesiodistal diameter of the crown of central incisors and canines showed significant albeit low to moderate correlations (0.35-0.45) with the stature. The correlation co-efficient values were higher (as high as 0.537) when summation of the measurements was taken for analysis. The regression equations when applied to the same and a test sample of volunteers revealed that differences between actual and estimated stature can be as low as 0.01 to as much as 16.50cm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that although there are some degrees of positive correlations between stature and tooth crown dimensions, stature estimation from the tooth crown dimensions cannot provide the accuracy of estimation as required in forensic situations. The stature estimation accuracy using tooth crown dimensions is comparable to that of cephalo-facial dimensions but inferior to that of long bones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology & Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: zakir@um.edu.my.
authors.forename: Mohammad Zakir
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Hossain
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology & Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Khalil M M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Munawar
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology & Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Zubaidah H A
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Rahim
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology & Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Marina Mohd
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Bakri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods*; D044466:Asian People; D001827:Body Height; D002508:Cephalometry; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods; D005553:Forensic Dentistry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D019228:Tooth Crown / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Correlation; Forensic identification; Regression equation; Stature estimation; Tooth crown dimension