Sex Estimation Based on Deciduous and Permanent Dentition in a Contemporary Spanish Population Joan Viciano,* Sandra L opez-L azaro, and Inmaculada Alem an Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Antrhopology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Avenida de Madrid 11, Granada 18012, Spain KEY WORDS tooth size; sexual dimorphism; logistic regression; Granada osteological collection ABSTRACT Sex estimation of skeletal remains with satisfactory allocation accuracy represents an essential step in reconstructing the biological profile of unknown individuals in archaeological research and forensic prac- tice. Teeth are among the most frequently recovered phys- ical elements of an individual that remain after death due to their hardness, durability, and resistance to postmor- tem insults. This study was based on the deciduous and permanent dentition of 269 individuals (150 males and 119 females) from the Granada osteological collection of identified infants, young children, and adults (Granada, Spain). Mesiodistal, buccolingual, and diagonal crown and cervical diameters of both dentitions were measured, and logistic regression analyses were performed to create equations for sex discrimination. The results show that the first and second deciduous molars and the permanent canines are the teeth with the greatest sexual dimor- phism, providing percentages of correct assignment of sex between 78.1 and 93.1% in deciduous dentition and between 79.4 and 92.6% in permanent teeth, depending on the dimensions used. The results indicate that this method may be applicable as an adjunct with other accepted procedures for sex estimation when fragmentary skeletal remains are encountered in archaeological exca- vations and in forensic contexts. Am J Phys Anthropol 152:31-43, 2013. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Teeth are one of the most long-lasting categories of physical evidence of an individual after death due to their hardness, durability, and resistance to postmortem insults, surviving a variety of destructive effects caused by mechanical, chemical, physical, and thermal altera- tions (Andersen et al., 1995; Hutt et al., 1995; Scott and Turner II, 1997; Fereira et al., 2008; Schmidt, 2008). They are formed during early stages of development; therefore, odontometric characteristics can be used as an additional methodology for the sex estimation of imma- ture and adult skeletal remains in poor and/or fragmented condition after their development and/or eruption, or even in immature individuals in which sexually differentiated osteological characteristics are not yet discernible (Teschler-Nicola and Prossinger, 1998; Cardoso, 2008). Calcification of the deciduous den- tition begins in utero from 13–16 weeks after fertiliza- tion. Deciduous tooth crown formation takes only 2–3 years from initial calcification to root completion. How- ever, mineralization of the permanent teeth is entirely postnatal (from birth to 10 years), and crown formation is completed between 3 and 6 years, while the develop- ment of each tooth takes about 9–25 years to achieve complete root formation (Nelson and Ash, 2010). Sex estimation from dental characteristics is mainly based on the comparison of dental dimensions (odonto- metrics) between male and female individuals. Numer- ous studies have identified sexual differences in odontometrical characteristics in permanent dentition (Moorrees et al., 1957; Garn et al., 1964, 1966; Ghose and Baghdady, 1979; R€ osing, 1983; Gamboratta, 1987; Hattab et al., 1997; Lund, 1999; Pettenati-Soubayroux et al., 2002; Is ¸can and Kedici, 2003; Ates ¸ et al., 2006; Karaman, 2006; Acharya and Mainali, 2007; Ling and Wong, 2007; Vodanovic ´ et al., 2007; Cardoso, 2008; Prabhu and Acharya, 2009; Pereira et al., 2010; Hassett, 2011; Sonika et al., 2011; Zorba et al., 2011), and in deciduous teeth (Moorrees et al., 1957; Black, 1978; Axelsson and Kirveskari, 1984; Garc  ıa-Godoy, 1985; De Vito and Saunders, 1990; Liversidge and Molleson, 1999; _ Za˛dzi  nska et al., 2008). These researchers have demon- strated that sexual dimorphism results in a larger tooth size in males than females. With this background, the aims of this study were (1) to evaluate the level of precision and accuracy of dental measurements in order to assess their reproducibility, (2) to determine levels of sexual dimorphism in dental dimensions, and (3) to develop logistic regression equa- tions for sex estimation based on metric data from decid- uous and permanent teeth. MATERIAL AND METHODS Sample This study was conducted in a total of 386 individuals of Spanish origin from the Granada osteological collec- tion. This sample is part of a large and expanding Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online ver- sion of this article. *Correspondence to: Joan Viciano, Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Anthropol- ogy, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada 18012, Spain. E-mail: joanviba@ugr.es Received 21 November 2012; accepted 4 June 2013 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22324 Published online 30 July 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). Ó 2013 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 152:31–43 (2013)