Odontometric Data from of all Tooth Types from Skeletal Collections in South Africa

Biological profiles are used to assist in the identification of an unknown person. Sex estimation is important in this process as other aspects of the biological profile such as age-at-death, population affinity and stature depend on accurate sex estimates. For this research, we estimated sex using the dentition of three socially identified South African groups, namely black, white and coloured South Africans. A total of 906 crania from dissection room cadavers from three medical schools, including the Pretoria Bone Collection (University of Pretoria), the Raymond A Dart Collection (University of Witwatersrand) and the Kristen Collection (Stellenbosch University) were used. Four measurements were taken from the left and right sides of incisors, canines, premolars and molars. Measurements were standard from Hillson 2005 and include four permanent tooth crown dimensions: maximum mesiodistal, maximum buccolingual and molar diagonal diameters (mesiobuccal - distolingual and mesiolingual - distobuccal).