Human identification is the need of the hour in today’s time where terrorist activities, airplane crashes, natural disasters have become relatively common. In such situations, identification by conventional means like fingerprint and DNA analysis becomes difficult due to its lack of availability and exorbitant cost. In such situations, there is a need to employ a reasonably accurate and easy to use method. Cheiloscopy and Palatoscopy are gaining increasing popularity as methods for gender determination since they are cost effective and no sophisticated armamentarium is required. In the present study, lip prints and palatal rugae patterns of 200 subjects in the age range of 10 to 70 years were recorded and analysed to evaluate their efficacy in gender determination. It was found that, overall; chelioscopy was more accurate in gender determination as compared to Palatoscopy. 

Keywords: Cheiloscopy; Palatoscopy; Lip Prints; Palatal Rugae.