Shade perception ability among different dental personnel

Kim, Ja Yeong; Lee, Im Gi; Yoon, Tae Ho; Ahn, Seung Geun; Park, Charn Woon

Abstract

Statement of problem: Many factors influence shade determination in clinical practice and shade matching is highly affected by the viewing conditions. Purpose: This study investigated the differences in shade perception among distinct groups of dental personnel (10 prosthodontists, 10 general practitioners, 10 last-year dental students and 10 dental technicians). Material and method: Four groups of dental personnel were investigated. They were tested to eliminate color blindness. To compare shade selection ability, they were asked to match four test tabs of shades A3, B2, C2 and D4 (VITAPAN. Classical shade guide. The identification codes of the shade tabs were masked to prevent shade memory.) against another full set of VITAPAN. Classical shade guide under similar lighting conditions. Shade selections were randomly repeated five times every week and then the repeatability between dental personnel was evaluated. To compare value perception ability, they were asked to arrange randomly selected five test tabs (B1, A2, D2, C3, A4) in descending order from the brightest to the darkest. To compare hue determination ability, they were asked to divide selected eight test tabs (A2, A3, B2, B3, C2, C3, D2, D3) into four groups by manufacturer as follows: Group A-Reddish brown, Group B-Reddish yellow, Group C-Grey, Group D-Reddish grey.
Results
and conclusion: The obtained results were as follows: 1. For the value perception ability and hue determination ability, there was no significant difference among 4 groups: prosthodontists, general practitioners, dental students, dental technicians(P>.05). 2. For shade selection ability, the prosthodontists and dental technicians were significantly higher than dental students(P<.05). 3. The repeatability of selected shade in the dental technicians was significantly higher than that of general practitioners and dental students(P<.05). 4. The prosthodontists and dental technicians had significantly higher selection ability than dental students for shade B2(P<.05).