Correlation of Lip Prints with Gender, ABO Blood Groups and Intercommissural Distance

BACKGROUND: In forensics, the mouth allows for a myriad of possibilities. Lip print on glass or cigarette butt found at crime scenes may link to a suspect. Hence, a dentist has to actively play his role in personal identification and criminal investigation. AIMS: To investigate the uniqueness of the lip print patterns in relation to gender, ABO blood groups and intercommissural distance (ICD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on 208 randomly selected students. The lip print of each subject was obtained and pattern was analyzed according to Tsuchihashi classification. The blood group and ICD at rest position was recorded for each. RESULTS: The study showed that Type II (branched) lip pattern to be most prominent. The B+ blood group was the most common in both genders and the ICD is higher in males. The lip print pattern does not show any correlation between ABO blood groups, gender, and ICD. CONCLUSIONS: The lip print pattern shows no correlation with gender, ABO blood groups, or ICD. Further studies with larger samples are required to obtain statistical significance of this correlation.