ABSTRACT
The use of human palatal rugae has been suggested as an alternative method for forensic identification, especially if teeth are lost due to any reason. This study was conducted to identify and compare the palatal rugae pattern of Sundanese and Malaysian Tamil students at the Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Padjadjaran Indonesia. A total of 60 subjects comprising 30 Sundanese and 30 Malaysian Tamils aged between 18 and 25 years were included in this study. Rugae patterns were analyzed based on the Thomas and Kotze classification. The chi-square test was used to study the statistical significance. Sundanese had more wavy pattern (70%), which was significantly higher in proportion (P < 0.05) when compared with Malaysian Tamils (20%), while Malaysian Tamils had predominantly a curved pattern (66.7%) and showed significant differences in proportion (P < 0.05) when compared with Sundanese (16.6%). The difference in the palatal rugae pattern between the two different ethnic groups can be used as a bioindicator for population identification.
Keywords: Palatal rugae pattern, population identification, Sundanese, Malaysian Tamils
