A comparison of ceramic crown color difference between different shade selection methods: Visual, digital camera, and...

Area of Science:

• Dental Materials Science
• Digital Dentistry
• Color Science

Background:

• Accurate shade matching is crucial in restorative and prosthetic dentistry for objective communication with dental laboratories.
• Current limitations in standardizing light sources for digital cameras and smartphones can lead to color mismatches and documentation issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the color difference (ΔE) magnitude across three shade selection methods: visual, digital camera, and smartphone.
• To evaluate the efficacy of digital shade selection techniques in fabricating ceramic crowns.

Main Methods:

• Compared visual shade selection (shade guides) with digital methods (digital camera and smartphone with light-correcting devices).
• Utilized cross-polarizing filters and a gray reference card for standardization in digital photography.
• Analyzed color differences (ΔE) between cemented ceramic crowns and adjacent teeth using ANOVA.

Main Results:

• Digital shade selection with both digital cameras (ΔE=2.75) and smartphones (ΔE=2.34) yielded significantly lower color differences than visual selection (ΔE=5.32).
• Digital methods achieved acceptable color differences (ΔE<3.7), while visual selection exceeded this threshold.
• No significant difference in accuracy was found between digital camera and smartphone methods (P=.857).

Conclusions:

• Digital shade selection using cameras or smartphones offers superior accuracy for ceramic crown fabrication compared to traditional visual methods.
• The use of light-correcting devices and gray reference cards aids in standardizing digital shade selection.
• Digital tools provide objective and reliable shade communication in dentistry.