Evaluating the accuracy of tooth color measurement by combining the Munsell color system and dental colorimeter

As we pay increasing attention to dental aesthetics, tooth color matching has become an important part of daily dental practice. This aim of this study was to develop a method to enhance the accuracy of a tooth color matching machine. The Munsell color tabs in the range of natural human teeth were measured using a tooth color measuring machine (ShadeEye NCC). The machine's accuracy was analyzed using an analysis of variance test and a Tukey post-hoc test. When matching the Munsell color tabs with the ShadeEye NCC colorimeter, settings of Chroma greater than 6 and Value less than 4 showed unacceptable clinical results. When the CIELAB mode was used, the a* value (which represents the red–green axis in the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage color space) made no significant difference (p = 0.84), the L* value (which represents the lightness) resulted in a negative correlation, and the b* value (which represents the yellow–blue axis) resulted in a positive correlation with ΔE. When the Munsell color tabs and the Vitapan were measured in the same mode and compared, the inaccuracies showed that the Vitapan was not a proper tool for evaluating the stability and accuracy of ShadeEye NCC. By knowing the limitations of the machine, we evaluated the data using the Munsell color tabs; shade beyond the acceptable range should be reevaluated using a visual shade matching method, or if measured by another machine, this shade range should be covered to obtain more accurate results.