Translucency of dental porcelains

The translucency of comparable shades of five dental porcelains was determined. Both direct transmittance and total transmittance were measured at wavelengths of 400-700 nm. For 1 mm of porcelain, the values for direct transmittance were low and averaged 0.13 percent, whereas the values for total transmittance averaged 26.8 percent. Transmittance increased with increasing incident wavelength. These results indicated a high degree of light scattering.