Dental Color Matching: A Comparison between Visual and Digital Shade Selection Repeatability in the Anterior and Posterior Region: A Clinical Study

The clinical study aimed to evaluate the repeatability of the Intraoral Scanner (IOS) in terms of dental shade selection in comparison to the visual method and to find if the difference between these two methods is clinically acceptable. As well as to assess the impact of tooth position on the repeatability of the IOS in shade selection. Two experienced raters have selected the shades of 38 right maxillary incisors, canines, and molars in 38 patients on two different days under the same clinical conditions using both the visual method and the trio’s intraoral scanner. Vita toothguide 3D-master was used as the shade guide reference for both methods. Delta E (ΔΕ) was calculated to assess the repeatability of each technique and to evaluate the difference in color matching between each observer and the IOS. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows and the level of significance was set at 5%. Results of repeatability assessment between day 1 and day 2 for the visual method and the intraoral scanner were higher in the incisor region but lower in the canine and molar region for the IOS compared to the visual method. However, this difference is not statistically significant in all regions (p>0.05). The color difference between the visual technique and the IOS was significantly lower than the clinical acceptability threshold, except between the second rater and intraoral scanner on day 2 for the molar region. Within the intraoral scanner, the repeatability agreement rate was significantly greater for the central, compared to the canine and molar teeth. The IOS is a reliable instrument for color shade selection compared to the visual method, especially in the anterior region; however, tooth position had an impact on its repeatability.