A comparison of new and conventional methods for quantification of tooth color

Tooth color is caused by volume reflection, that is, passage of incident light through the tooth followed by backward emergence. This passage is concurrent with sideward displacement of photons that, in effect, influences the result of usual instrumental methods of determining tooth color. This problem is overcome by the use of large-field illumination and small-field observation. A fiber-optics colorimeter based on this principle is described. The color observed through two holes in a double box was visually matched by subtractive adjustment of the illuminating color in one box, whereas the other box showed the central part of the tooth diffusely illuminated by illuminant C light. This colorimeter was tested on wet, extracted human incisors in the tooth arch of a phantom-head. Results were compared with a visual standard-strip method described previously and with a conventional spectrophotometer. It was concluded that the fiber-optics colorimeter is a promising instrument, although technical improvement is necessary.