Facial soft tissue thickness database of Gujarati population for forensic craniofacial reconstruction

• Main Authors: Anand Lodha, Mitalee Mehta, M.N. Patel, Shobhana K. Menon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2016-06-01
• Series: Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences
• Subjects: Facial soft tissue thickness; Gujarati population; Computed tomography; Personal identification; Forensic anthropology; Skeletal remains
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090536X1630020X
• ISSN: 2090-536X

The forensic facial reconstruction is a scientific art to construct the ante-mortem face from the human skull. The facial recognition is made by reconstructing the contours of the facial soft tissue thickness (FSTT).These FSTT data are essential for probable face reconstruction but the data of FSTT at particular anthropological landmarks differ in various ethnic groups. Until now several works have been reported on different population but no study exists in which the FSTT of a Gujarati population has been measured. The aim of this study is to compile a set of soft tissue depth data of Gujarati population of India to add to existing literature on FSTT. Computed tomography (CT-scan) has been utilized to measure the 25 different FSTT landmarks of 324 male and 165 female. Present study shows significant differences in certain FSTT of Gujarati population from that of other populations. Our compiled data set of FSTT for the Gujarati population is important in understanding craniofacial characteristics of the Gujarati population and potentially be helpful in forensic identification.