The Influence of Dental Shade Guides and Experience on the Accuracy of Shade Matching

AIM: There is limited and inconsistent information on some factors affecting visual shade selection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of shade guide type and professional experience on shade-matching results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty Dental students (DS), 30 General dentists (GDs) and 30 Dental specialists (S) participated in this study. The participants were asked to match six target tabs using two dental shade guides: Vitapan Classical (VC) and Vitapan 3D-Master (3D). An intraoral spectrophotometer was used for color measurement of target tabs and selected tabs. The color difference (ΔE) values between the target tab and selected tab were calculated. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired f-test (α = 0.05). Results of the first five best matches for each target tab were expressed as ΔE1 to ΔE5. Differences in the mean values of ΔE1 to ΔE5 between VC and 3D were compared using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: There were no significant differences among the three participating groups in ΔE values when the 3D was used (p = 0.389). However, significant differences were found with VC (p < 0.001). The ΔE values achieved from the 3D were significantly lower than those from VC for DS and S (p = 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). For each of the first five best matches, the mean ΔE values from the 3D were smaller than the corresponding values of VC. CONCLUSION: The type of dental shade guide affected the shade-matching results. The level of experience was not found to be an influential factor in shade matching when 3D-Master shade guide was used. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Compared with Vitapan Classical shade guide, use of the Vitapan 3D-Master shade guide improves shade-matching results. KEYWORDS: Color, Experience, Gender, Selection, Shade, Visual. How to cite this article: Nakhaei M, Ghanbarzadeh J, Amirinejad S, Alavi S, Rajatihaghi H. The Influence of Dental Shade Guides and Experience on the Accuracy of Shade Matching. J Contemp Dent Pract 2016;17(1):22-26. Source of support: This study was supported by a grant (No. 920903) from the Vice Chancellor for Research of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The results presented here are based on undergraduate thesis (No. 2686) submitted to Mashhad School of Dentistry and Dental Research Center. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.