Assessment of Age and Sex Through Measuring of Maxillary Sinus using Cone Beam Computed Tomography in an Egyptian Sample

Identification is an important issue in forensic medicine for ethical, humanitarian, official, statistical and legal purposes. Maxillary sinus is the largest one of paranasal sinuses, that can be used for age and sex identification through variation in its dimensions. The current study aimed to determine the accuracy and reliability of  maxillary sinus for personal identification (age and sex) through morphometric analysis using Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT). The present study was of prospective and retrospective nature, including CBCT images of 50 subjects using Planmeca proface machine. Maxillary sinus height, width and depth were measured using Romexis software, then volume was calculated according to an equation. Maxillary sinus measurements were found to be of higher values on the right side than the left one, and in cases of age >40 years than in those of age ≤40 years, and also of higher values in male than those of female. For age identification, volume of left maxillary sinus was proved to have the highest ability. While, for sex identification, height and width of both sides and volume of right side have a high ability. However, volume of the left maxillary sinus showed moderate ability for sex identification. Predictive formulae were initiated through maxillary sinus measurements to detect age and sex, such formulae showed 70.0 % and 90.0 % level of accuracy respectively. Maxillary sinus can be used as an authentic and reliable tool for age and sex identification.