Palatal rugae patterns in the Serbian population

Establishing the gender of a dead person is one of the main aspects in forensic medicine, especially in cases of massive disasters. Palatal rugae have been related with specific racial groups and are said to be useful in sex determination. One hundred pre-orthodontic plaster casts, equally distributed between males and females with an age range of 15-30 years, were examined for different rugae patterns by the Thomas classification. The total number of rugae was not significantly gender linked. According to size, the primary type of rugae was dominant in both males and females. Wavy and curved patterns of rugae were the most common, both in males and females. There was a significant sex difference in the circular and converging types which was higher in males and females, respectively.