Efficacy of Sex Determination from Human Dental Pulp Tissue and its Reliability as a Tool in Forensic Dentistry

BACKGROUND: Sex determination is one of the primary steps in forensics. Barr body can be used as a histological method for identification of sex as it is found to be specific to female somatic cells and rare in male cells. To demarcate human dental pulp as an important identification tool of sex in forensic odontology (FO) and to evaluate the time period till which sex can be determined from pulp tissue using three stains H and E, Feulgen, and acridine - orange under fluorescence so as. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 90 pulp samples (45 males and 45 females) were subjected to Barr body analysis for determination of sex using light and fluorescent microscopy. RESULTS: Barr body was found to be positive for female samples and negative or rare in the male sample (<3%). CONCLUSION: Barr body from human dental pulp tissue can be used as a successful determinant of sex identification in FO.