Estimation of sex assigned at birth using dental crown and cervical measurements in a modern global sample

Abstract

Despite developing prior to the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics of the skeleton, the permanent dentition exhibits sexual dimorphism. Therefore, teeth can serve as a means to estimate sex assigned at birth even in young individuals. This project takes a large global sample of maximum dimensions of the crown as well as measurements of the crown at the cervix to explore sexual dimorphism. Dimorphism is noted in teeth throughout the dental arcade, particularly in the canines. We provide sectioning points as well as the probability of correct classification (ranging from 50.9% to 81.3%) for each measurement to aid the practitioner in sex estimation from the dentition. This research provides a method to estimate sex without arbitrary population specifications. We argue for a global approach that incorporates more population variation to remove the need to estimate “ancestry,” (which in actuality is translated to a social race category) and therefore does not force sexual dimorphism-related variation into these mutable and ambiguous categories. Further, this paper demonstrates the utility of the dentition as an additional indicator to aid with the estimation of sex assigned at birth in forensic anthropology. The goal of this research is to better understand the expression of sexual dimorphism across the skeleton in a global context.