[Preliminary evaluation on self-developed dentin porcelain color prediction system]

Area of Science:

• Dental Materials Science
• Color Science in Dentistry
• Prosthodontics

Background:

• Accurate shade matching is crucial for the esthetics of porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns (PFMC).
• Traditional visual shade matching can be subjective and prone to errors.
• Instrument-based methods offer objective color measurement but require integration into fabrication workflows.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the color-matching accuracy of a self-developed dentin porcelain color prediction system for PFMC fabrication.
• To compare the system's performance against visual shade selection and spectrophotometer-based techniques.

Main Methods:

• Three groups of PFMC were fabricated for 20 central incisors: visual selection (Group A), spectrophotometer-based matching (Group B), and the prediction system (Group C).
• Color differences (ΔE) were measured using a spectrophotometer in cervical, middle, and incisal regions.
• One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the color difference data.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in color matching were found in the body (P>0.05) or incisal regions (P>0.05) among the three groups.
• The prediction system (Group C) showed a significantly greater color difference in the cervical region compared to the spectrophotometer-based method (Group B) (P<0.05).
• Visual selection (Group A) showed similar color differences to both the spectrophotometer-based method (Group B) and the prediction system (Group C) (P>0.05).

Conclusions:

• The self-developed dentin porcelain color prediction system achieved comparable color matching to conventional and instrument-based methods for PFMC.
• While generally similar, the system's performance in the cervical region warrants further investigation.
• The system presents a viable alternative for achieving predictable color outcomes in dental restorations.