Comparison between Visual shade selection and Instrumental Shade Determination using Intra Oral Scanner and Digital Spectrophotometer

Background: Improper shade selection is one of the most common causes behind restorations’ remake and patient dissatisfaction. Multiple protocols and devices have been proposed to address the limitations of visual shade selection. Objective: To compare the accuracy of dental shade matching gathered visually with both VITA Classical (VC) and VITA 3D-Master (V3D) shade guides with those obtained instrumentally with both 3Shape Trios 3 and VITA Easyshade® Advance 4.0. Materials and Methods: For visual shade selection (VSS), one- hundred participants from King AbdulAziz University, Faculty of Dentistry participated in the study and asked to select the shade of six masked shade tabs from both VC [A1, A2, B1] and V3D [1M1, 2M3, 3R1.]. Later, Instrumental shade determination (ISD) was completed by one experienced participant for six cycles using: VEasy and Trios 3. Results: Significant difference was found between VSS and ISD. The results suggested that although participants significantly preferred VC over V3D in terms of VSS, this did not improve the shade selection performance. Besides, in ISD, no significant difference was reported between VEsay and Trios 3. There was no statistical significance difference between neither Trios 3 when combined with VC and V3D nor between VEasy when combined with VC and V3D. VEasy showed the best shade selection performance when combined with V3D, although the difference was non-significant. Conclusion: The result of the present study supports the promising use of the intra oral scanner 3Shape Trios 3 and dental spectrophotometer VITA Easyshade® Advance 4.0. Combination with a visual selection method may result in more accurate and reliable results.