Palmistry be the Predictor

Background: Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic disease among children in india still today. The epithelium of finger buds as well as enamel is ectodermal in origin and both develop at the same period of intra uterine life. On the basis of this fact dermatoglyphic pattern may play a role as a predictor in determination of caries to initiate preventive oral health measurment.

Aim: To observe a relationship between the dermatoglyphic patterns of the ECC affected children with children without ECC and to determine the possibility of dermatoglyphic to play a role as a non-invasive predictor of ECC.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in 600 children aged 3-6 years from state of Bihar India which were equally distributed between ECC (dmft score≥5) and non ECC (dmft=0) control group. Hand digits were guided by the researcher to the eSSL usb finger print sensor and pressed firmly against the sensor to record the finger prints and Midlo and Cummins method of recording palm prints was used using Indiana Ink (stamp pad), roller and printing papers. The prints were inspected with the help of magnifying lens and atd angle was recorded.

Result: Loop pattern was predominantly seen in Non-ECC group whereas whorl pattern was mostly seen in ECC group and was statistically significant (p value≤0.05) and atd angle was higher in the caries free children when compared to ECC children.

Conclusion: There is a variation in dermatoglyphic patterns between the ECC and caries-free groups indicating that it can be used as an alternative non invasive predictor tool for determining ECC.