The Impact of Age on the Accuracy of Sexual Dimorphism Using Anthropometric Indices of Maxillary Sinus

The potential benefit of maxillary sinus measurements for analysis of sexual dimorphism has been proved. Also, it has been shown that maxillary sinus dimensions, as the reliable sex indicators, diminish with age due to physiological and morphological alterations.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of age on the accuracy of maxillary sinus indices for sex determination.

In this cross-sectional study's research 240 cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans (120 males, 120 females), aged 20-70 years old, were evaluated retrospectively. Subjects were categorized into four age groups: 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and ≥50 years. Each group consisted of 60 subjects. Maximum sinus height, width, length, and distance between two maxillary sinuses were evaluated.

All the measurements were higher in men than in women. Generally, the strongest sex indicator was maxillary sinus width However, when analyzing different age groups, the most reliable indicators for determining sex were the distance between the sinuses in the 20-29 age group, sinus height in the 40-49 group, and sinus width in both the 30-39 and 50-and-above age groups. The specific sex discriminant formula showed an accuracy of 78.3% for the ages of 20-29 and 40-49 years as well as 71.7% for the 30-39 and ≥50 age groups.

The specific sex discriminant formula presented in this study showed noticeable accuracies for sex determination. Additionally, discriminant analysis revealed that the anthropometric measurements of the maxillary sinus exhibit varying degrees of sexual dimorphism across different age groups.