Sexual dimorphism in permanent teeth of modern Greeks Eleni Zorba a , Konstantinos Moraitis a, *, Sotiris K. Manolis b a Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece b Department of Animal and Human Physiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, Athens, Greece 1. Introduction Sex determination is considered an important step in recon- structing the biological profile of unknown individuals from the forensic context. The most commonly used techniques are based on the assessment of the morphological characteristics of the pelvis and skull [1]. However, it is not uncommon to recover the pelvis and the skull in a fragmentary state in forensic settings. In this case, teeth can be used as an additional tool for sex determination as they are very resilient to destruction and fragmentation in comparison with skeletal tissues. Metric and non-metric analyses of the human dentition have played an important role in human biological research and have formed a central focus in the field of dental anthropology for over a century [2,3]. Most studies of sexual dimorphism in tooth size are based on the measurement of the mesiodistal and buccolingual crown diameters [4–6]. However, a number of other studies have used alternative measurements such as the mesiodistal and buccolin- gual cervical and diagonal diameters of teeth [7]. In addition, some investigations have examined the distances of molar cusps [8], while some more recent research has focused on studying crown tissue measurements since it has been proved that tooth formation and tissue proportions are highly regulated by sex-linked genes [9– 18]. Sexual dimorphism in crown morphology and size of the permanent dentition is the result of the different amount of enamel, dentin, and pulp tissue between males and females. A number of investigations have established that sexual dimorphism exists in the permanent dentition of humans particularly in the canines, which exhibit the greatest degree of difference [2,11,12,14,15,19–21]. According to Butler [22] and Garn et al. [15], a ‘‘canine field’’ exists in the permanent dentition around which adjacent teeth (lateral incisors and first premolars) share a tendency for greater sexual dimorphism than do more distant teeth. In the past, research on sex differences in tooth morphology has assessed the dimorphism of the mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters of tooth crowns [15,19,23]. The extent of this sexual dimorphism varies among populations [14] although current intra-specific data may not be representative of the total range of variation across archaeological and contemporary populations [24]. Furthermore, no positive correlation exists between the deciduous tooth size and the degree of sexual dimorphism [25]. Metric approaches confirmed that sexual dimorphism exists in overall crown size with values for males exceeding on average those for females [26]. As sexual dimorphism Forensic Science International 210 (2011) 74–81 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 19 November 2010 Received in revised form 10 January 2011 Accepted 3 February 2011 Available online 2 March 2011 Keywords: Sexual dimorphism Tooth size Dental measurements Greek population A B S T R A C T Sex determination is considered an important step in reconstructing the biological profile of unknown individuals from a forensic context. Forensic anthropologists have long used teeth as an additional tool for sex determination as they resist postmortem destruction. In this case the use of population-specific data is necessary since sexual dimorphism varies between different populations. Currently there are no odontometric standards for determining sex in Greek populations. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of sexual dimorphism in permanent teeth of modern Greeks. A total of 839 permanent teeth in 133 individuals (70 males and 63 females) from the Athens Collection were examined. Mesiodistal and buccolingual crown and cervical diameters of both maxillary and mandibular teeth were measured. It was found that males have bigger teeth than females and in 65 out of 88 dimensions measured, male teeth exceeded female teeth significantly (P < 0.05). Canines were the most dimorphic teeth followed by first premolars, maxillary second premolar and mandibular second molar. Although other teeth were also sexually dimorphic they did not have a statistically significant difference in all dimensions. The most dimorphic dimension was buccolingual cervical diameter followed by buccolingual crown diameter. A comparison of sexual dimorphism in teeth between different populations showed that it differs among different groups. European population groups presented the highest degree of sexual dimorphism in teeth whereas Native South Americans the lowest. ß 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, School of Medicine, University of Athens, 75M. Asias Str., Goudi, Athens 11527, Greece. Tel.: +30 210 7462426; fax: +30 210 7706868. E-mail address: kmoraitis@med.uoa.gr (K. Moraitis). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forensic Science International jou r nal h o mep age: w ww.els evier .co m/lo c ate/fo r sc iin t 0379-0738/$ – see front matter ß 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.02.001