Possibility of Human Gender Recognition Using Raman Spectra of Teeth

Abstract

Gender determination of the human remains can be very challenging, especially in the case of incomplete ones. Herein, we report a proof-of-concept experiment where the possibility of gender recognition using Raman spectroscopy of teeth is investigated. Raman spectra were recorded from male and female molars and premolars on two distinct sites, tooth apex and anatomical neck. Recorded spectra were sorted into suitable datasets and initially analyzed with principal component analysis, which showed a distinction between spectra of male and female teeth. Then, reduced datasets with scores of the first 20 principal components were formed and two classification algorithms, support vector machine and artificial neural networks, were applied to form classification models for gender recognition. The obtained results showed that gender recognition with Raman spectra of teeth is possible but strongly depends both on the tooth type and spectrum recording site. The difference in classification accuracy between different tooth types and recording sites are discussed in terms of the molecular structure difference caused by the influence of masticatory loading or gender-dependent life events.

Application of optical dental impression data for personal identification

“…(2) Determination of indices Sex determination by the current area measurement indicated significantly more males in the first molars for the two methods. Sex differences in tooth size have been noted, with male teeth significantly more than female teeth [21][22][23] . Although sex determination for all three tooth types quantified would be ideal, only the first molar could determine sex.…”

Innovative Vibrational Spectroscopy Research for Forensic Application

“…The group attributed the difference in success to the presence of more cementum in molars than premolars, and the difference in the mineral-to-matrix ratio in the cementum of male and female spectra could differentiate the biological sex of the donor. 267 A highly probative piece of information required during an investigation is the calculation of the post-mortem interval (PMI). In many cases, this calculation is performed by measuring the insect activity.…”

“…The success rate for the classification of biological sex was 70–90% and 50–70% for molars and premolars, respectively, with spectra taken at the apex of the tooth. The group attributed the difference in success to the presence of more cementum in molars than premolars, and the difference in the mineral-to-matrix ratio in the cementum of male and female spectra could differentiate the biological sex of the donor …”

Non-destructive diagnostic testing of cardiac myxoma by serum confocal Raman microspectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis

“…23,24 As a result, SVM is attracting increasing interest for the classication of spectral data. [25][26][27][28] Up to now, SVM detection of CM has not been investigated. Initially, the SVM algorithm was used to identify changes in serum spectral information in the normal and CM patients.…”