Establishing cheiloscopy as a tool for identification: an assessment on 500 subjects in central India

Objective: Human identification is a universal process of certification of death and for personal, social and legal reasons. Aim of this study is to check whether there are any peculiar / common lip patterns among males and females and to establish lip prints as a tool for identification. Background: The present study was conducted among 500 subjects, aged 1-70 years. Method: The lip-imprints were taken by researcher no. 1 on a simple bond paper after applying lip stick evenly. Analysis of different patterns was done by researcher no.2 to avoid bias. Results: 229 male out of 250 and 226 female out of 250 were positively identified. Type I, I’, II patterns were most commonly seen among female, while type III and IV lip patterns were most predominantly seen among males and type II lip pattern was present in both sexes. Conclusion: Lip prints are unique and do not change during the life of a person. So it can be taken as one of the person identification tool