Lip outline: A new paradigm in forensic sciences

INTRODUCTION: Personal identification is becoming increasingly important not only in legal medicine but also in crime/criminal investigation and identification. Sometimes establishing a person's identity can be a very difficult process. Dental, fingerprint, and DNA comparisons are probably the most common technique used. However, there are many well-known implanted methods of human identification, one of the most interesting emerging methods of human identification which originates from the criminal and forensic practice, is human lips recognition. Cheiloscopy is a forensic investigation technique that deals with the identification based on lip traces. The lip outline of every person is unique and can be used to fix the personal identity. AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the distribution of lip outline patterns among males and females, and to evaluate the uniqueness of lip outline pattern. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study group comprised of 200 individuals from Kamineni Institute of Dental Sciences. Lip outline patterns were obtained and were transferred to the proforma sheet for analysis. RESULTS: The results of the study revealed that the lip outline patterns for each individual were unique. CONCLUSION: This study showed that lip outline patterns are unique to each individual and can be used for personal identification.