An In Vitro Study to Check Role of Palatine Rugae in Maxillary Canine Positioning As Well As in Gender Identification

Palatine rugae are the characteristic soft tissue folds on the anterior third of the palate. These are highly individual and consistent in shape throughout life. Palatine rugae are important as it can be useful in many ways. When identification of an individual by other methods as finger print ,lip print etc is inconclusive, palatal rugae may be considered as an alternative source of information (usually if comparative material is available) enabling the search field to be narrowed. Palatal rugae pattern in different ethnic groups may differ. This also can be used to narrow down the search. Preserving natural appearance in edentulous patients is a challenge. This can be done by proper teeth arrangement as per the natural positioning of the teeth. Palatine rugae can be used as a potential reference to determine canine and other teeth position, which in turn will be useful for teeth arrangement in complete denture. So the study was carried out to determine the role of palatine rugae in maxillary canine positioning as well as for gender identification.