Color Space Variability of Shade Guide Systems in Restorative Dentistry

Objectives: In a clinical setting partial denture teeth may sometimes be placed next to exiting restorations. As the field of dentistry moves towards esthetically pleasing results, more often these restorations are composite resins. In a case such as this, the clinician may use the shade that was selected from a previously placed composite as the shade for the denture teeth in the partial denture. If practitioners are to be successful in meeting the esthetic requirements of their patients they must use the best method of selecting a tooth shade. This study evaluated the compatibility and consistency of denture teeth shade selection with composite resin shades and shade guides. Methods: The shade guides used were Blue Line Esthetic Denture Teeth, TruMatch EsthetX, and Vita Classic. Esthet-X composite resin in the A and B shades were used as a control to which the shade guides were matched. Five composite resin samples of each shade were formed into 10 mm diameter disks and light cured. L*, a*, b* readings were obtained from a spectrocolorimeter. Color measurements were made with each of the shade guide tabs using the same spectrocolorimeter. An ANOVA was conducted to examine the relationship between the color of shade guides and the composite resin (a= 0.05). Results: The various shade guides that were tested did not uniformly correspond to the Esthet-X composite of the same shade. This result is not surprising given the variability that has been between shade guides. Conclusions: This study serves as a note that further work should be done to standardize the shades and care should be taken clinically to use proper technique to match a shade for denture teeth.