Dental Variation Ln Malaysian Populations with Application To
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THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA Dental Variation ln Malaysian Populations W¡th Application To Human ldentification Volume 1 TEXT Mohd Fadhli Bin Khamis BDS, Grad. Dip. Foren. Odont. Forensic Odontology Unit Dental School The University of Adelaide A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December, 2005 Abstract The aim of this study was to carry out a detailed analysis of dental crown size and morphology in the four main ethnic groups living in Malaysia; Malays, Chinese, lndians and Negritos. The particular focus was to develop methods that could be applied in forensic cases where the need to determine identity is hampered by lack of detailed dental records, The outcomes of the study also have application in describing population affinities and histories in a broader anth ropological context. Recent mass disasters have highlighted the important role played by the dentition in confirming the identity of deceased persons. Although the use of dental structures to determine age is well accepted, objective methods to discriminate gender and ethnicity based on dental features have not been described or tested to any great extent. There are, however, situations where such methods, if shown to have good predictive value, would make a valuable contribution to forensic investigations. Dental impressions of 790 individuals were obtained by the author over a 3-month period and dental models were constructed from these impressions, Tooth size and dental crown morphology were recorded from the dental models using digital callipers and visual observation. The data were analysed to determine within- and between'group variation using both univariate and multivariate analyses. Models to predict ethnicity and sex were developed and tested for accuracy. Metric tooth size data revealed no significant trends in directional asymmetry in any of the groups. The Chinese sample showed dimensional variability in the dentition which conformed to morphogenetic field theory and also displayed the most sexual dimorphism in crown size. ln terms of tooth size, the Malays and Chinese were close, while the Negritos were distinctly separated from the other groups. Morphological crown traits tended to be expressed symmetrically with little evidence of sexual dimorphism. Phenetic distance estimates based on crown morphology indicated that Malays, Chinese and Negritos could be grouped together to represent a Mongoloid group. The lndians formed a separate group who displayed lndo-european features in their dentitions, Tooth size data were used alone to generate sex prediction models in all four groups, and then they were combined with selected crown traits to evaluate ethnicity prediction models between Malays, Chinese and lndians. The most successful sex discrimination results, at 88% accuracy, were observed in the Chinese group. Models generated for samples where groups were combined, to simulate a situation where ethnicity was unknown, still provided over 80% accuracy in determining sex. The ethnicity discrimination rates between Malays, Chinese and lndians were relatively low, although the models that were developed performed better than chance. When Malays and Chinese were pooled to form a Mongoloid group, predictability improved lo 72o/o accuracy. The use of logistic regression analysis on combined metric and non-metric data improved the success rates to 87.6 - 91.5%. This thesis provides the first comprehensive description of the dental characteristics of the four main ethnic groups in Malaysia. The results have shown that predictive models can be developed from dental data with sufficient predictive power to discriminate between the sexes and ethnic groups. These models are potentially valuable in forensic cases where there are low rates of dental caries or few dental restorations, or where dental records are incomplete, The results are also valuable in a broader anthropological context in improving our understanding of the affinities and histories of the different ethnic groups living in Malaysia. ii This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to my best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being available for loan and Signature: o.t,' *l/1/r:lg ilt Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the individuals and agencies that have made meaningful contribution to my PhD project whether directly or indirectly, My appreciation and respect to my supervisors, Professor Townsend , Associate Professor Taylor and Professor Rani Samsudin for being consistently encouraging and giving advice through my PhD course. Sincere thanks to the participants; the schoolchildren and their parents from Kelantan and Perak, and the compatriot of RPS Air Banun, Perak for being patience during the course of record collection. My sincere appreciation to the Dean of the School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for continuous support and encouragement. My gratefulness to Dr Fazura Mohd Zain for assisting me during record collection in several schools around Kota Bharu. The appreciation shall also be extended to Drs Basarudin, Sarliza Yasmin and staff involved during record collections at the RPS Air Banun for their assistance at RPS Air Banun, This project also would not be successful without assistance from Encik Abu Osman, the manager and his staff from the RPS Air Banun. My genuine thanks to DSP Mohd Haniffa Bin Abdul Kadeer from Royal Malaysian Police, Tuan Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Bin lsmail from Kelantan Legal Support Bureau, Ustaz Hj. Saibon from Kelantan lslam Religion Unit, for fruitful discussion and advice from legal and religious perspective pertaining the importance of identification processes. My appreciation to the statisticians from USM and The University of Adelaide for their advice on statistical analysis. Sincere thanks to Dr Saidi Jaafar for his advice on preparing this thesis. I would like to extend my appreciation also to governmental agencies. The Department of Orang Asli Affairs from the headquarters and Negeri Perak, and The Ministry of Education Malaysia for permitting me to access the participants. The Minister of Ministry of Police and South Australian Police Depaftment, and the Universiti Sains Malaysia for pafily fund this research project. V Structure of thesis This thesis has been structured as ten separate chapters, each with its own set of references, The format of each chapter has been organised to facilitate submission of material to journals for publication. This approach has led to a small amount of repetition but it is hoped this will not detract from the reade/s enjoyment - in fact, the repetition may help to maintain a continuity of thought. The appendices are presented in a separate volume to keep the length of volume 1 manageable. Contents VOLUME 1 : TEXT Abstract... Signed statement.......... Acknowledgments. Structure of thesis. Chapter 1 lntroduction. 1.1 The imponance of the identification process 1.2 Methods for identification of human remains .2 1.3 The use of teeth for identification .4 1.4 Population diversity in Malaysia, .6 1.5 Forensic dentistry in Malaysia .9 1.6 References: 12 Chapter 2 Literature review,.........., 15 2.1 Dental ontogeny.,. 15 2.1.1 Odontogenesis, including recent molecular studies 15 2. 1.1,1 Morphodifferentiation and histodifferentiation 15 2. 1.1.2 Recent molecular studies of odontogenesis and determination of tooth shape 17 2.1.2 Environmental influences on teeth 21 2.2 Patterns of variability in the human dentition 23 2.3 Associations between different dental traits ... 2.4 Genetic studies of the human dentition 29 2.5 Sexualdimorphism in the human dentition..... 35 2.5.1 Role of sex chromosomes and h0rm0nes............... .....,.........,35 2.5.2 Magnitude and pattern of sexual dimorphism in human populations..........39 2.5.2.1 General pattern of sexualdimorphism in tooth size 40 2.5.2.2 Magnitude and pattern of sexual dimorphism in tooth crown dimensions...41 2.5.2.3 Magnitude and pattern of sexual dimorphism from the frequencies of tooth morphology (non-metric crown traits).................. 45 2.5.2.4 Sex prediction models ..... ..47 2.6 Bilateral asymmetry in the dentition............... ..52 2.7 Human diversity based on tooth size and morphology...... 56 2.8 Reliability of measuring and scoring metric and non-metric dental variables... ..63 2.9 References. .67 Chapter 3 Materials and methods,.,...,...... ..83 3.1 Materials...., 83 3.1.1 Sample collection and sample distribution .. 83 3.1.1.1 Sample collection from schools 83 3.1.1.2 Sample collection from Orang Asli resettlement area.,.... 84 3.1.1.3 Ethical clearance 86 3.2 Methods..... 91 3.2.1 Procedures used in obtaining impressions and constructing dental models .91 3.2.2 Measurements obtained from dental models .......92 3,2.3 Observations on dental morphology.. 95 3.3 References 108 Chapter 4 Odontometric variation in Malaysian populations 109 4.1 lntroduction 1 09 4.2 Materialsandmethods..,............,. 1 11 4.2.1 Abbreviations used in this study:.. 1 11 4.2.2 Sample.,..... 1 11 4.2.3 lnclusion criteria.........: 1 12 4.2.4 Definitions of measurements.......... 1 12 4.2.5 Enor study 1 13 4.2.6 Statisticalanalyses 1 13 4.2.6.1 Normalitytesting........ 1 13 4.2.6.2 Outliers 1 13 4.2.6.3 Descriptivestatistics 1 14 4.2.6.3.1 Mean and standard deviation 114 4.2.6.3.2 Sexual dimorphism ranking 114 4.2.6.3.3 Coefficients of variation.... 114 4.2.6.4 Parametrictests........... 115 4.2.6.4.1 Paired t-test..,...,.... 115 4.2.6.4.2 Two sample t-test.......... 115 4.2.6.5 Non-parametric tests 116 4.2.6.6 Penrose shape distance coefficients.... 116 4.3 Results .............121 4.4 Discussion .............1 62 4.5 References:.