Clinical Evaluation of an Experimental Body Shade Guide Based on In-Vivo Tooth Color Measurements

Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an experimental body porcelain tooth shade-guide system based on in-vivo color measurements. This system was tested against two widely used commercial body shade porcelains. Materials and Methods A body porcelain shade guide consisting of 16 tabs was fabricated from available opaques, body, and incisal porcelains and modified with metallic oxide tints. The target Hue, Value and Chroma of these tabs were based on middle-site in-vivo tooth color measurements reported by Goodkind and Schwabacher in 1987. Two control groups of body porcelains were fabricated from Ceramco and Bioform porcelains. A new Dental Shade Comparator was used in a clinical test of these tabs in visually matching middle sites of 300 maxillary anterior teeth of 103 subjects. Results The demographic trends in Hue, Value and Chroma were in agreement with those found in the previous study. Four of the 16 experimental body shade tabs were frequently chosen compared with 13 of 16 Ceramco and 3 of 25 Bioform body shades. Intraexaminer and interexaminer reliability tests showed good agreement using the new Dental Shade Comparator. Conclusions The 20 shade tabs that were most frequently selected as a 1st or 2nd choice ranged from 8.25YR to 1.80Y in Hue, 6.45/to 8.00/in Value and/2.05 to/4.15 in Chroma. The new Dental Shade Comparator is a useful tool in the task of shade matching. The current Ceramco II body shades contain many useful porcelains that should be augmented with higher value and with redder, darker shades.