Shade matching quality among dental students using visual and instrumental methods

ObjectivesStudy aims were to compare shade matching quality between visual and machine-aided shade selection among dental students and to evaluate the effect of experience and gender.MethodsA total of 204 undergraduates and interns participated. They were briefed about colour matching using a visual method with a Vita-3D Master system and a spectrophotometer. Participants with colour vision deficiency were excluded. Six maxillary anterior teeth of a maxillary blue stone cast were replaced with six maxillary artificial teeth. Participants selected the best shade match using each method. A daylight illuminator with the GTI mini-matcher colour viewing system was used during the test. The results were statistically analysed with SPSS version 19 with 95% confidence intervals. Frequencies and Chi-square tests were used to analyse the data, at α = 0.05 and with P < 0.05 indicating significance.ResultsAmong the participants, 36.3% visually selected the correct shade, and 80.4% did so using the Easy Shade Compact machine. Experience (P = 0.177) and gender (P = 0.560) did not affect visual shade selection; in addition, with the Easy Shade Compact device, males and females equally mastered its use (P = 1.0), and experience did not influence outcomes (P = 0.552).ConclusionsThe shade matching device was significantly better than the conventional visual method. With both techniques, neither experience nor gender influenced shade matching quality.Clinical significanceVisual tooth colour matching is unreliable and inconsistent because of various subjective and objective factors, and the use of a colour measuring device might improve the quality of shade matching among dental students.