Shade matching by dental students

Area of Science:

• Dental Materials Science
• Color Science in Dentistry

Background:

• Accurate shade selection is critical for aesthetic dental restorations.
• The Portrait IPN (International Dental) shade guide is a common tool used in dental education and practice.
• Understanding the challenges dental students face in shade matching is essential for improving training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the ability of dental students to accurately identify specific shades using the Portrait IPN shade guide.
• To identify specific shade characteristics (hue, value, chroma) that pose the greatest difficulty for dental students.
• To analyze the patterns of errors made by dental students during shade tab identification.

Main Methods:

• Dental students were presented with unmarked shade tabs from the Portrait IPN shade guide.
• Participants were asked to identify the correct shade tab.
• Accuracy rates were analyzed based on shade characteristics, including hue, value, and chroma.

Main Results:

• High identification rates were achieved for darker shades (P14, P24) with high chroma and low value in yellow hue groups.
• A high identification rate was also observed for shade P32 (low chroma, high value in reddish gray hue).
• The most significant difficulty was encountered in correctly determining the hue group for unmarked shade tabs, with errors often occurring within the same value and chroma range.

Conclusions:

• Dental students demonstrate proficiency in identifying certain high-contrast shades but face challenges with hue discrimination.
• The study highlights the need for enhanced training in hue differentiation for dental students using the Portrait IPN shade guide.
• Improving shade matching accuracy in dental education is crucial for achieving predictable aesthetic outcomes in clinical practice.