Age and Sex Related Variations in the Maxillary Sinuses of Southeast Nigerians

Abstract

Craniofacial growth is believed to be a multifactorial process involving both genetic and epigenetic factors and how epigenetic functional matrices stimulate the transduction of regulatory signals. This study tested the relationship between the variation in maxillary sinus dimensions with sex and age. Lateral and anteroposterior radiographs of 74 males and 46 female of South Eastern Nigerians taken from 18^th August 2003 to 12^th July 2004 with ages ranging from 9 to 75 years were measured. The length, width and height of the sinus were measured using defined anatomical landmarks and analyzed. Data were analyzed using excel package of a tabletop computer, employing Chi square test (χ²) to determine the association between sinus dimensions and age or sex. The evidence to associate maxillary sinus dimensions with age and sex was lacked. Thus establishing values for age and sex were not possible. Therefore prediction on the dimensions of maxillary sinus giving the age or sex of individual is statistically unreliable.