Abstract
Introduction:
Lip print patterns are individualistic and unique and can be used for identification of individuals.
Objectives:
The objective of this study was to find out the different types of lip patterns, know the most common one and to know whether it has any gender predilection among adults of Sebha city.
Materials and Methods:
A total of 104 adults aged 18-35 years participated in this study. Lip prints were recorded and analyzed for lip print patterns. Statistical analysis was carried out using the computer software Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) 17.0 (Chicago, Illinos, USA).
Results:
Type I lip print pattern was seen in 53.37% and 60.07% of lip quadrants in males and females, respectively. 27 (25.96%) subjects had same lip print pattern in all the four quadrants.
Conclusion:
Suzuki and Tsuchihashi's Type I lip print pattern was most common type of lip print pattern in the studied population, whereas Type I' was found to be the least common.
Keywords: Cheiloscopy, forensic odontology, individual identification, sex determination
Introduction
Lips contain in them various characteristic patterns of grooves, furrows, wrinkles and lines, the combination of which is individualistic and unique like finger prints.[1] The study of this lip print patterns is called as cheiloscopy. The presence of such biological phenomenon of furrows on the red part of lips was described as early as 1902 by Fischer, an anthropologist as referred by Sivapathasundharam[2] Lip prints are relatively new forensic odontology tools in identifying individuals. A number of classifications have been proposed by various researchers to classify the lip print patterns, the most commonly used among them being the Santos,[3] Suzuki and Tsuchihashi[4] and Renaud's classification.[5] The present work is the first known consolidated attempt to carry out a cheiloscopic study in the Libyan population. The present study aimed to find the different types of lip patterns, to find out the quadrant wise and gender wise predilection of lip print patterns and to know the most common lip print pattern, in the adults of Sebha city, Libya.
Materials and Methods
The study was conducted among 104 adults; the sample consisted of 37 males and 67 females. The subjects were aged between 18 and 35 years and were from the native population of Sebha city, Libya. Ethical clearance was obtained from the scientific committee, Faculty of Dentistry, Sebha University, Sebha, Libya. The study was conducted in a period of 3 months from December 2012 to February 2013. The adult subjects, willing to participate in the study, providing informed consent were included in the study. Subjects with gross deformities in lips, those having known allergy for lipstick materials and those having active lesions on their lips, were excluded from the study. Each individual was allowed to select any dark colored lipstick of their choice. They were asked to clean their lips and then apply the lipstick on their lips and then to rub their lips to spread the lipstick uniformly. The lip prints were then taken on a clean white paper, which was supported with a card board. Care was taken to avoid smudging of the prints.
The recorded lip prints were then studied using the magnifying lens. The lips were divided into four quadrants (upper left, upper right, lower right and lower left) and the prints were analyzed according to Suzuki and Tsuchihashi,[4] classification, which is as follows:
Type I: Vertical, complete (end-to-end) longitudinal fissures
Type I': Incomplete vertical fissures
Type II: Branching, Y shaped pattern
Type III: Criss-cross patterns
Type IV: Reticular, typical chequered pattern, fence-like.
All data was entered using Microsoft excel and analyzed statistically using Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) (SPSS, version 17.0) (Chicago, Illinos, USA). Chi-square test was performed to test the significance of gender-wise difference in different quadrants. P ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results
The present study was conducted to access the quadrant wise and gender-wise predilection of the lip print patterns and to know the most common lip pattern among adults in Sebha city, Libya.
Table 1 shows the distribution of various types of lip patterns in the four quadrants of the subjects in the study. This table shows overall results of the present study.
Table 1.
Distribution of lip print patterns
Table 2 is the simplified version of Table 1, it shows that 53.37% of quadrants in males and 60.07% of quadrants in females had Type I lip pattern. 7.43% of quadrants in males and 6.71% of quadrants in female had Type I' lip pattern. 20.94% of quadrants in males and 16.04% of quadrants in females had Type II lip pattern. 9.45% of quadrants in males and 9.32% of quadrants in females had Type III lip pattern. 8.78% of quadrants in males and 7.83% of quadrants in females had Type IV lip pattern. Overall 57.7% of quadrants had Type I. 6.97% of quadrants had Type I'. 17.78% of quadrants had Type II pattern. 9.37% of quadrants had Type III pattern. 8.17% of quadrants had Type IV pattern. These results show that Type I pattern was the most common type of lip pattern followed by Type II, Type III and Type IV lip pattern, the least common was Type I' when overall quadrants were considered and the same was observed among males and females also.
Table 2.
Gender wise distribution of lip print patterns
Graph 1 shows the distribution of the subjects by gender-wise and lip print pattern in upper left quadrant. Type I pattern was seen among 43.24% of males and 56.71% of females. Type I' pattern was seen among 5.4% of males and 11.94% of females. Type II pattern was seen among 21.62% of males and 17.91% of females. Type III pattern was seen among 16.21% of males and 7.46% of females and Type IV pattern was seen among 13.51% of males and 5.47% of females. Distribution of lip print pattern among males and females in the upper left quadrant of the lip was not statistically significant (Chi-square value was 5.357 and P > 0.05).
Graph 1.
Distribution of subjects by gender in relation to type of lip print pattern in upper left quadrant (percentage)
Type I pattern was observed among 43.24% of males and 52.83% of females. Type I' pattern was seen in 13.51% of males and 5.97% of females. Type II pattern was seen in 18.91% of males and 22.38% of females. Type III pattern was seen in 10.8% of males and 8.95% of females. And Type IV pattern was seen in 13.51% of males and 10.44% of females. There was no statistically significant difference among all the patterns between males and females (Chi-square value 2.376 and P > 0.05) [Graph 2].
Graph 2.
Distribution of subjects by gender in relation to type of lip print pattern in upper right quadrant (percentage)
Type I pattern was seen among 59.45% of males and 67.16% of females. Type I' pattern was seen among 2.7% of males and 4.47% of females. Type II pattern was seen among 27.02% of males and 13.43% of females. Type III pattern was observed among 5.4% of males and 5.97% of females and Type IV pattern was seen among 5.4% of males and 8.95% of females. Distribution of lip print pattern among males and females in the lower right quadrant of the lip was not statistically significant (Chi-square value was 3.23 and P > 0.05) [Graph 3].
Graph 3.
Distribution of subjects by gender in relation to type of lip print pattern in the lower right quadrant (percentage)
Type I pattern was seen in 67.56% of males and 64.17% of females, Type I' pattern was seen in 8.1% of males and 4.47% of females, Type II pattern was seen in 16.21% of males and 10.44% of females, Type III pattern was seen in 5.4% of males and 14.92% of females, Type IV pattern was seen in 2.71% of males and 5.97% of females. There was no statistically significant difference among all the patterns between males and females (Chi-square value 3.623 and P > 0.05) [Graph 4].
Graph 4.
Distribution of subjects by gender in relation to type of lip print pattern in the lower left quadrant (percentage)
In the present study, 27 subjects had the same type of lip pattern in all the quadrants. Of the studied subjects, 26 had Type I lip pattern and one had Type I' lip pattern and out of them 20 were females.
Discussion
Libya was historically subdivided into three administrative regions i.e.,the North-east (Tripoli province), North-west (Berca-Benghazi province) and south (Fezzan region). Sebha city is the capital city and the only large urban settlement in the Fezzan region, so Sebha city represents south of Libya. The results of the present study can be extrapolated to the South Libyan population/races-Fezzan region.
Lip prints are prints of an individualistic anatomical character of human lips. Lip print recording is a very useful tool in forensic investigation and may be at times the only available aid at a crime scene. Hence, this study was carried out to study and evaluate the common lip patterns and their variations in the study population and the differences between the sexes.
The most common pattern of lip print in the present study was Type I pattern among both the genders. The results of the present study were in complete coincidence with the studies by Ragab et al.[6] among Egyptian population and Sandhu et al.[7] among Punjabi Indian populations where they found complete vertical pattern to be the most common lip pattern in both genders. The present study differed with the studies conducted by El Domiaty et al.[8] in Almadinah Almonawarah, Costa and Cladas,[9] among the Portuguese population, Prabhu et al.[10] among Goan Indian population where complete vertical grooves were not the most common ones.
In the present study in upper left quadrant Type I pattern of lip print was most common, which is similar to the results reported by Vahanwala and Parekh,[11] but in contrast with results reported by Amith et al.[12] which reported Type I' being the most common.
In the present study, most of the subjects, who had similar lip patterns in all the quadrants, were females. This was similar to the findings reported by Amith et al.[12] and Vahanwala and Parekh.[11]
In the present study, there was no statistically significant difference between males and females regarding any type of lip pattern and that the sex could not be differentiated from the lip print. Similar findings were reported by Ragab et al.[6] among the Egyptian population and by Prabhu et al.[10] in Goan Indian population, whereas contrary findings were reported by Costa and Cladas,[9] in Portuguese population.
Limitations of the present study
The South Libyan population is generally slightly dark skinned homogenous one with the heterogeneity in that the majority being Arabic speakers and in lingual minorities who speak languages of African accent. The authors could not record inter racial difference taking into consideration the prevalent precarious postwar security situation and the cultural sensitivities associated with lingual affiliations.
Conclusion
The conclusions of the present study are as follows:
The most common pattern of lip print was Type I followed by Type II, Type III and Type IV. Type I' was the least common lip print pattern. This was found in both genders and was common across the various quadrants
No gender-wise difference was observed among the lip prints pattern
No statistically significant difference was found between the genders.
Footnotes
Source of Support: Nil
Conflict of Interest: None declared
References
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