{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T20:37:58Z","timestamp":1792183078907,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]],"date-time":"2023-08-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1693267200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Dentistry Journal"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The purpose of this study is a new method that can help to identify the sex through the study of palatal rugae, comparing sagittal sections of the hard palate using Cartesian coordinates and evaluating the assistance given by digital technology and its applicability in this method. In this study, 57 digital impressions were examined and divided in two groups based on sex. Results: 2223 impression sections were studied and 145 coordinates that were present with a frequency greater than 50% in one or both groups were obtained: 52 discriminating traits (DT) in the male group, 29 discriminating traits in the female group, and 64 common traits (CT). The DTs in the female group showed no statistically significant difference from the same coordinates in the male one (p = 0.832). Statistically significant differences were observed in the DTs in the male group compared to the same coordinates in the female group (p = 0.018). No statistically significant differences were observed in the frequency of DTs in both sexes (p = 0.056). Further research in forensic odontology is needed to determine its scientific certainty. It is certain that digital technology may one day be a valuable support for the forensic odontologist but to date the lack of dedicated and certified programs limits its reliability.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/dj11090204","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]],"date-time":"2023-08-29T10:47:26Z","timestamp":1693306046000},"page":"204","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Palatal Rugae as a Discriminating Factor in Determining Sex: A New Method Applicable in Forensic Odontology?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Andrea","family":"Trizzino","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Surgical Oncological and Stomatological Disciplines, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pietro","family":"Messina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Surgical Oncological and Stomatological Disciplines, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fabio Massimo","family":"Sciarra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Surgical Oncological and Stomatological Disciplines, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stefania","family":"Zerbo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Promotion of Health, Maternal-child, Internal Medicine and Specialist of Excellence \u201cG. D\u2019Alessandro\u201d University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9964-0184","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonella","family":"Argo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Promotion of Health, Maternal-child, Internal Medicine and Specialist of Excellence \u201cG. D\u2019Alessandro\u201d University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7305-530X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giuseppe Alessandro","family":"Scardina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Surgical Oncological and Stomatological Disciplines, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"543","DOI":"10.4103\/jomfp.jomfp_81_21","article-title":"Role of forensic odontology and anthropology in the identification of human remains","volume":"25","author":"Jayakrishnan","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Oral Maxillofac. Pathol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jflm.2009.12.007","article-title":"A brief history of Forensic odontology since 1775","volume":"17","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Forensic Leg. Med."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rai, B., and Kaur, J. (2012). Evidence-Based Forensic Dentistry, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-28994-1"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"171","DOI":"10.1111\/j.2041-1626.2013.00150.x","article-title":"Palatal rugae and their role in forensic odontology","volume":"5","author":"Jain","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Investig. Clin. Dent."},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"26","article-title":"Analysis of rugae in burn victims and cadavers to simulate rugae identification in cases of incineration and decomposition","volume":"23","author":"Muthusubramanian","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Forensic Odonto-Stomatol."},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"123925","article-title":"A Comparative Study of Palatal Rugae Patterns among Igbo and Ikwerre Ethnic Groups of Nigeria: A University of Port Harcourt Study","volume":"2014","author":"Ibeachu","year":"2014","journal-title":"Anat. Res. Int."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.4103\/1735-3327.223611","article-title":"Assessment of palatal rugae pattern for sex and ethnicity identification in an iranian population","volume":"15","author":"Ghazizadeh","year":"2018","journal-title":"Dent. Res. J."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"650648","DOI":"10.1155\/2015\/650648","article-title":"Morphological Study of Palatal Rugae in a Sudanese Population","volume":"2015","author":"Ahmed","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Dent."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"786","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1556-4029.2011.02016.x","article-title":"Palatal Rugae Pattern in a Portuguese Population: A Preliminary Analysis","volume":"57","author":"Santos","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Forensic Sci."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"295","DOI":"10.4103\/jomfp.JOMFP_277_18","article-title":"Morphological analysis of various rugae patterns among Dravidian population","volume":"23","author":"Bhojaraju","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Oral Maxillofac. Pathol."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"126","DOI":"10.4103\/0975-1475.195110","article-title":"Quantitative and qualitative analysis of palatal rugae patterns in Gujarati population: A retrospective, cross-sectional study","volume":"8","author":"Jayasankar","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Forensic Dent. Sci."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.4103\/jfo.jfds_18_16","article-title":"Comparison of palatal rugae pattern among Indian and Tibetan population","volume":"10","author":"Hosmani","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Forensic Dent. Sci."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"52","DOI":"10.4103\/0976-9668.127287","article-title":"Palatoscopy: An adjunct to forensic odontology: A comparative study among five different populations of India","volume":"5","author":"Guruprasad","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Nat. Sci. Biol. Med."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"1","article-title":"Characteristics of Palatal Rugae Patterns as a Potential Tool for Sex Discrimination in a Sample of Iranian Children","volume":"20","author":"Pakshir","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Dent."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"306","DOI":"10.4103\/0976-9668.159985","article-title":"Dimensional and morphological analysis of various rugae patterns in Kerala (South India) sample population: A cross-sectional study","volume":"6","author":"Selvamani","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Nat. Sci. Biol. Med."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"417","DOI":"10.4103\/2231-0762.192947","article-title":"Morphological analysis of palatal rugae pattern in central Indian population","volume":"6","author":"Dwivedi","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Int. Soc. Prev. Community Dent."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"12","article-title":"Morphological analysis of palatal rugae patterns in a population of Maharashtrian ancestry: A cross-sectional study","volume":"38","author":"Mhatre","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Forensic Odonto-Stomatol."},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"2356","article-title":"Characteristics of Palatal Rugae Patterns in West Godavari Population of India","volume":"7","author":"Babu","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Clin. Diagn. Res."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"122","DOI":"10.4103\/0975-1475.132542","article-title":"Rugae pattern in a sample of population of Meerut\u2014An institutional study","volume":"6","author":"Bhagwath","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Forensic Dent. Sci."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1192","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1556-4029.2011.01831.x","article-title":"Morphological Pattern of Palatal Rugae in Children of Davangere","volume":"56","author":"Jibi","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Forensic Sci."},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"612","article-title":"The Application of Palatal Rugae for Sex Discrimination in Forensic Medicine in a Selected Iranian Population","volume":"43","author":"Malekzadeh","year":"2018","journal-title":"Iran. J. Med. Sci."},{"key":"ref_22","first-page":"73","article-title":"Stability of the palatal rugae as landmarks for analysis of dental casts in extraction and nonextraction cases","volume":"66","author":"Bailey","year":"1996","journal-title":"Angle Orthod."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1351","DOI":"10.1111\/1556-4029.13129","article-title":"Stability of Palatal Rugae as a Forensic Marker in Orthodontically Treated Cases","volume":"61","author":"Ali","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Forensic Sci."},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"20","article-title":"Establishing the reliability of palatal rugae pattern in individual identification (following orthodontic treatment)","volume":"29","author":"Shukla","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Forensic Odonto-Stomatol."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.4103\/0975-1475.150294","article-title":"Transverse changes in lateral and medial aspects of palatal rugae after mid palatal expansion: A pilot study","volume":"7","author":"Kapoor","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Forensic Dent. Sci."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"430","DOI":"10.4103\/jomfp.JOMFP_190_18","article-title":"Assessment of palatal rugae pattern and its significance in orthodontics and forensic odontology","volume":"22","author":"Romana","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Oral Maxillofac. Pathol."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Carpenter, A.L. (2003, January 7\u201310). Macro Quoting Functions, Other Special Character Masking Tools, and How to Use Them. Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Northeast SAS User Group Conference, Washington, DC, USA."},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"34","article-title":"Oral mucositis. Review of literature","volume":"76","author":"Scardina","year":"2010","journal-title":"N. Y. State Dent. J."}],"container-title":["Dentistry Journal"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6767\/11\/9\/204\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T20:41:23Z","timestamp":1760128883000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6767\/11\/9\/204"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]]},"references-count":28,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,9]]}},"alternative-id":["dj11090204"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/dj11090204","relation":{},"ISSN":["2304-6767"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2304-6767","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]]}}}