Comparison of aesthetic properties of tooth-colored restorative materials

The objective of this study was to compare the aesthetic properties of color and translucency of Vita shade-based tooth-colored restorative materials, including composite resins, a polyacid-modified composite resin, and resin-modified glass-ionomer cements via clinical discrimination by human evaluators. The hue/chroma, value, and translucency of the five different materials chosen to represent the range of commercially available tooth-colored restoratives were graded by 40 dental personnel against the body of their respective Vita shade tabs using a five-point scale (1 = very poor; 2 = poor; 3 = average; 4 = good; 5 = excellent). Results confirm the clinical observation that the hue/chroma, value, and translucency of the different materials evaluated do not match the Vita shade guide to which they are supposedly keyed. The aesthetic properties of hue/ chroma, value, and translucency for the material evaluated were all shade dependent. Comparison of pooled results revealed that none of the materials had good or excellent ratings and that the composite resins had significantly better hue/ chroma, value, and translucency match to the Vita shade guide than the other materials evaluated.