SEXUAL DIMORPHISM OF THE HUMAN MANDIBLE LITERATURE REVIEW

When skeletal remains are found, there are some key elements to start a bio-anthropological study, they are: sex estimate and date of death of the remains. Simultaneously, it must take into account that populations vary according to their phylogenetic and evolutionary origins, sex, age and character of each individual. Sex in species varies according to its phylogenetic origins in size and shape, this variation is called sexual dimorphism. The precise estimation of sex, when complete skeletons are found, is based on morphological characteristics of pelvis, but this is not always present, that is why, methods based on other osseous structures are needed. Mandible is the strongest facial bone, despite of time, due to their physical characteristics, retains its morphology, showing sexual dimorphism. Therefore, the objective of this update is to describe methods of determining sexual dimorphism in skeletal remains of human mandibles. Narrating the use of multiple metric and non-metric studies to determine sex variants. Some methods have advantages and disadvantages in terms of use. Morphological method is based on morphological differences that arise genetically linked to sex and metric methods consist of the metric measurement of certain dimensions on a variety of mandibular structures designed according to sex, but that are standardized for each population. Finally, the application of these metric parameters along with morphological characteristics could be an useful tool for forensic dentistry to discriminate sex in the mandible