Type I Lip Pattern in at Least One Quadrant among First and Second-year Medical and Dental Students of a Medical College: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: The upper and lower lip consists of the numerous amounts of fine grooves. This pattern of grooves will be definite throughout the lifetime. The groove of the lip shows variations and play important role in forensic medicine and crime investigation. The objective of this study is to find out the prevalence of type I lip print in at least one lip quadrant among first- and second-year medical and dental students of a medical college. METHODS: The study was conducted on 240 students of a medical college between November 2020-January 2021 after getting the ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Committee (reference no. KMC-IRC 0311202006). The convenient sampling was done. The patterns of the grooves of the lip were studied. The data was analysed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 20 version. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. RESULTS: Out of 240 students, type I lip pattern was seen in at least one quadrant in 190 (79.6%) (73.38–84.94 at 95% CI) students. One hundred and fifty-nine (66.3%) had type I pattern in the right upper quadrant, 160 (66.7%) in left upper quadrant, 181 (75.4%) in right lower quadrant, and 177 (73.8%) in left lower quadrant. Type Ia was maximum found in 115 (47.9%) and type Ib in 66 (27.5%) in lower left quadrant of lip. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed a higher prevalence of type I lip pattern than those reported by other national studies done among medical students.