Color coverage of a newly developed system for color determination and reproduction in dentistry

Objectives: A newly developed system for color determination and reproduction is logically arranged and systematically combines a few components to acquire its broad color range. The objective was to evaluate color coverage of human teeth with the range of the new system and to compare it with other existing systems. Methods: The systems for color determination used in this study were: New system Standard (NS), New system Expanded (NE), Vita Classical (VC) and Vita 3D-Master (V3D) (Vita Zahnfabriek, Germany), Vintage Halo (VH) (Shofu, Japan), Chromascope (CH) (Ivoclar Vivadent, Lichtenstein). The tabs of all systems were measured with digital spectrophotometer, SpectroShade-Micro (MHT, Italy), and their L*a*b* values were compared with the L*a*b* values of 198 teeth (mean age = 30.10; SD = 13.15) to obtain their coverage errors. The Delta E <= 1.6 was established as threshold for perceptibility. Results: Wilcoxon-signed rank test showed that the coverage of the teeth with the NE range was the best, as indicated by the lowest mean minimal Delta E value, followed by the NS range. Both ranges had statistically significant lower mean minimal Delta E values than all the other systems (p > 0.01). The percentage of Delta E <= 1.6 was significantly higher for NS and NE range than for the other systems (p > 0.01). Conclusions: The newly developed color determination and color reproduction system could cover the range of human teeth, used in this study, below the level of perceptibility (Delta E <= 1.6) better than four other available contemporary systems. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.