The Forensic Importance of Frontal Sinus in Gender Discrimination: A Morphometric Study

The determination of gender of unknown persons is of vital importance in forensic investigations, such as anthropologic, medical and dental forensic studies, mainly in cases where only fragments of the skull remain and there is no possibility of identification based on the dental arch. The frontal sinus has been used for personal identification since early parts of 20^th century as a result of tremendous inter individual variations. The aim of the study is to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of frontal sinus in gender determination using morphometric parameters. Present study comprised of 50 subjects (25 males and 25 females). Caldwell's view was taken and frontal sinus was analyzed with AutoCAD 2010 software. No statistically significant difference was found between mean area of frontal sinus between males and females. Hence, we can conclude that morphometric analysis of frontal sinus is not A reliable tool and cannot assist in sex discrimination.