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Influence of binocular vision, ocular dominance, and sex on color discrimination
Heba F Elghorab1, Ihab A Hammad2, Amir S Azer3
1Former Master's student, Division of Fixed Prosthodontics, Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Statement Of Problem:
Binocular difference is the perception difference between the right eye and the left eye in the same individual. This disparity is crucial in clinical practice and should be accounted for. However, information regarding the effect of this phenomenon in the dental literature is lacking.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of viewing condition (binocular versus monocular), ocular dominance, and sex on color discrimination accuracy using the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue (FM-100) test in dental students with normal color vision.
Material And Methods:
A total of 102 dental students (51 women; 51 men; 21.4 ±1.2 years) with normal color vision and uncorrected (20/20) visual acuity were enrolled after Ishihara screening. Ocular dominance was identified with the Dolman hole-in-card method. Each participant completed the (FM-100) test under 3 viewing conditions: binocular (BN), dominant eye (DE), and nondominant eye (NDE). A 120-minute rest period was provided between conditions. Total error scores (TESs) were calculated using the Farnsworth-Munsell scoring software program, where lower TESs indicated better color discrimination performance. The Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, as well as the Mann-Whitney U tests and Holm-Bonferroni correction, were used to analyze data (α=.05). Test-retest reliability (n=30, retested after 14 days) was tested using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).
Results:
Right eye dominance was observed in 70.6% of participants, with no significant sex-based variation (P=.664). TESs differed significantly by viewing condition (P<.001). Binocular viewing yielded the lowest TES (29.8 ±16.5), followed by dominant (32.7 ±17.6) and nondominant eyes (44.6 ±22.7). TESs were significantly lower under binocular versus nondominant viewing (P<.001) and dominant versus nondominant viewing (P<.001); binocular versus dominant was statistically similar (P=.089). For BN, the mean of TESs was 26.0 ±15.0 in women and 33.6 ±17.4 in men (P=.006). For DE, TESs were 28.6 ±15.1 in women and 36.8 ±18.1 in men (P=.008). ICC values for test-retest reliability were good (ICC=0.88) for the nondominant eye, with excellent reliability for binocular and dominant eye conditions (ICC≥0.9).
Conclusions:
No significant difference between binocular and dominant viewing was found. Color discrimination accuracy was significantly better with binocular and dominant eye viewing than with the nondominant eye. Women demonstrated better color perception under all conditions. Routine screening for ocular dominance and visual accuracy could improve shade matching.
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