Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: August | Volume: 6 | Issue: 8 | Pages: 568-577
Estimating the Sex of Igbo Adults Using Occlusal Tooth Wear
Valentine C. Amasiatu, Gabriel S. Oladipo, Michael O. Oyakhire, Eric O. Aigbogun (Jr)
Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Corresponding Author: Valentine C. Amasiatu
ABSTRACT
The study estimated sex using occlusal tooth wear. A total of 202 Igbo adults (aged 21 – 60 years), resident in the south-eastern part of Nigeria were used for the study. Those who gave their consent and reached the benchmark for selection were sampled. Tooth wear patterns were obtained using alginate-based impression material obtained from alginate (using a grade IV dental stone). Tooth wear (TW) was scored from the casts using the adjusted Kim’s scoring system. Occlusal wear was scored 0 – 10 according to the pattern and degree of wear. The teeth were numbered: 14, 15, 16, 17, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 44, 45, 46 and 47 following FDI nomenclature. Results were analyzed using SPSS (IBM®, version 25.0, Armonk, New York, USA) and Minitab (Minitab® Inc., version 18.0, Pennsylvania). Results values were presented in descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U test, was used to establish sex and paired t-test for side differences, while Decision Tree using Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) was carried out to discriminate sex (with age as an influence variable) at 95% confidence limit (with P-values < 0.05 considered statistically significant). Females had higher scores for tooth wear compared to males for all 16 teeth, except 14 and 34.The CHAID model showed that the TW score for LRQ47 was the predictor with the strongest relationship with sex after controlling for age. When the scores were 3; 2; 8; 1; 0–there was 62.5% chance that it was male, while when the score was 5; 4; 7–the possibility it was female was 63.8%. However, there was a better prediction for males (81.1%) when compared to females (40.7%); with an overall accuracy of 62.9%. In conclusion, tooth wear score may not be an accurate stand-alone sex-discriminatory parameter; therefore, it is advisable to use it alongside other available techniques.
Key words: Occlusal, Tooth, Wear, Sex, Estimation.
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