Repeatability and reliability of human eye in visual shade selection

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

This study reported that 'visual shade-matching protocol is a clinically acceptable and reliable method.'

Main

Özat PB, Tuncel I et al. J Oral Rehabil 2013: 40: 958–964

And this observation was made, despite the subjects not following the shade-matching protocols as recommended by the manufacturer. In this study, the investigators seemed to focus on the lack of repeatability of the human eye. This observation was in contrast to the use of a dental spectrophotometer (VITA Easyshade^® VITA Zahnfabrik). Fifty-four dentists were recruited. They recorded the shade of an upper right central incisor tooth of a single subject recorded using 1) the Vita 3D-Master shade guide and 2) the VITA Easyshade^®. This was performed twice at a one month interval. Standardised measurement procedures were used and shade tabs were masked. The mean L^*, a^* and b^* values were calculated (L^* designates the lightness of the colour, a^* designates the amount of red-green colour and b^* designates the amount of blue-yellow colour). The investigators state that 'translucency, contour, surface texture, lustre or fluorescence' should be considered during shade-matching. So although the dental spectrometer shows repeatability, the visual shade matching is acceptable.