Jorge Ortiz Contreras; Pablo Navarro Cáceres; Jerzy Kasprzak & Gabriel M. Fonseca

Although almost all studies exclude lip conditions because they would affect furrow patterns, some authors maintain that they should be considered temporary or permanent disabilities, all of which require further research in this context.We present a study in which we associate lip conditions with lip print patterns to associate both morphological elements for fieldwork purposes. Fifty-seven women and 48 men aged between 19 and 38 years who resided in Temuco (Chile) were included. The lip conditions and their prints were recorded, and an analysis, comparison, evaluation, and verification protocol (ACE-V) for lip prints was applied. Of the participants, 27.4 % had healthy lips, while 71.7 % had some type of condition.Although patterns related to temporary and permanent lip conditions were recognized in the lip prints in a non-significant way, the diagnosis of "healthy" or "altered" lip status could be made significantly by a calibrated examiner. Although these conditions do not represent identifying variables without empirical studies to validate them, they can affect the quality of the evaluated lip print; therefore, they should be recognized during the analyses considering the prevalence of these conditions.

KEY WORDS: Cheiloscopy; Lip prints; Lip conditions; Forensic identification; Fingerprints.

ORTIZ CONTRERAS, J.; NAVARRO CÁCERES, P.; KASPRZAK, J. & FONSECA, G. M. Study of lip conditions associated with lip print patterns: a new perspective on cheiloscopy. Int. J. Morphol., 42(3):567-576, 2024.