Morphological Study of Palatal Rugae in a Sudanese Population

Abstract

Palatal rugae patterns have unique characteristics and have been proposed as an alternative method to establish identity when other means, such as fingerprints and dental records, are not attainable. This study was conducted to determine the morphological characteristics of palatine rugae and to assess the existence of side asymmetry in them in Sudanese Arabs. It also assesses the possibility of determining sex using logistic regression. One hundred dental casts for 50 males and 50 females aged between 18 and 23 were studied for palatal rugae dimensions, shapes, and orientations, as well as sexual dimorphism and side symmetry. The most predominant rugae were primary, and the most prevalent shapes in both sexes were wavy, curved, and straight forms. The predominant orientation was forward. Side asymmetry existed more in the orientations than in the shapes, but no side asymmetry was recorded in the dimensions. There was no significant sexual dimorphism in the rugae dimensions, shapes, and orientations, except for forward-directed rugae (P < 0.037). A predictive value of 60% was obtained in assigning sex using dimensions and orientations and of 58% using shapes alone. Therefore, the palatal rugae are not recommended for assigning sex effectively among Sudanese Arabs unless it is the only means available.

A pilot- cross sectional study of palatal Rugae shape and direction among Egyptians and Malaysians

“…The results of this study are partially in agreement with Ahmed and Hamid (2015) results who observed the predominance of forwarding than backward directed rugae. However, they mentioned that Sudanese males had significantly greater forwarding directed rugae than the Sudanese females.…”

“…During gestation, rugae are prominent and occupy most of the area of the palatal shelves (Ahmed and Hamid, 2015).…”

“…Ante-mortem data present in dental clinics such as medical records and old prosthetic maxillary impressions or even previous photos are used to compare with post-mortem data. For all these reasons, palatal print can be used as reliable and trusted tool in the field of forensic identification (Ahmed and Hamid, 2015).…”

Estimation of sex from the anthropometric ear measurements of a Sudanese population

“…Although palatal rugae, cranial and limb parameters have been used in sex estimation in adult Sudanese Arabs [31][32][33][34], the present study highlights the importance of sex assessment potential of ear variables that has not been explored before among the Sudanese. In considering the sex classification accuracy of the direct single variable discriminant analyses, the maximum classification accuracy obtained was 70% for the right ear and 68% for the left ear.…”

<p> Perbedaan pola rugae palatina sebelum dan sesudah perawatan dengan alat ortodonti lepasan</p><p>Differences in palatal rugae patterns before and after the removable orthodontic appliances treatment</p>

“…12 Penelitian lain tentang studi morfologi pada populasi sunda menghasilkan persentase arah rugae palatina paling sering muncul adalah forward (lebih dari 50%), diikuti dengan arah backward (lebih dari 30%). 29 Hasil uji statistik berdasarkan aspek arah menunjukkan nilai tidak signifikan, sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa berdasarkan klasifikasi arah, rugae palatina sebelum dan sesudah perawatan tidak terdapat perbedaaan. Hasil ini terlihat berbeda dengan penelitian lain yang menyatakan bahwa rugae palatina yang paling dekat dengan gigi lebih mudah untuk mengalami perubahan arah berkaitan dengan pergerakan gigi yang dilakukan.…”