Influence of light-cured luting agents and associated factors on the color of ceramic laminate veneers: A systematic review of in vitro studies

Objective

The luting agent plays a significant role in the appearance of ceramic laminate veneers (CLV), allowing improved/stable shade matching with adjacent teeth. A systematic review was conducted to investigate the influence of light-cured luting agents and color-associated factors aiming to draw guidelines for stable shade matching of CLV. The paper has also given an overview of the compositional characteristics of all luting agents and ceramic systems whose performance was presented herein.

Methods

A search of in vitro studies that quantitatively investigated the influence of light-cured luting agents on the color of CLV was conducted. PubMed/MedLine, Cochrane Library, SciVerse Scopus and Web of Science databases were explored until December 2017 with no year limit. Data regarding the effect of light-cured luting agent, ceramic systems, effect of background, accelerated aging and surface treatments on color change were collected. A meta-analysis was not possible due to heterogeneity of data.

Results

After duplicates’ removal, 3630 studies were identified, 48 were selected for full-text analysis, and 21 remaining papers met the inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review.

Significance

Considering the shade aspects of luting agents, translucency and value showed the greatest visible color differences for CLVs. The effect of luting agent shade on the color of veneers is greatly affected by ceramic thickness and opacity.