Rugae patterns as an adjunct to sex differentiation in forensic identification.

The aim of the study was to identify the different patterns of palatal rugae and gender differences in rugae pattern in Maharashtra population thereby highlighting the importance of palatal rugae in establishing person's identity. The 600 dental casts of age 18 years and above were included in the study. The rugae were delineated using a sharp graphite pencil under adequate light and magnification and information was recorded about shape, number, size and direction of the palatal rugae. The most commonly noticed rugae among the total study participants primary and secondary. Among the patterns of rugae wavy (92.3%) was most common and significantly more among females. The point (9.8%) type of rugae was the only pattern found to be more in males. It may be concluded that the rugae pattern can be an additional method for post mortem identification in conjunction with the other methods such as visual, fingerprints and dental characteristics in forensic sciences.