Repeatability Of Visual, Spectrophotometer And Intraoral Scanner Methods In Shade Matching: A Comparative In-Vivo Study

Introduction: Visual method of shade determination is highly subjective and a cause of concern for dentists. Instrumental methods were used to determine tooth shade hoping to achieve superior esthetics. Great controversy still exist about the best method and its repeatability for shade selection. Objective: To compare and measure repeatability of three methods of shade determination, i.e.: visual, spectrophotometer, and intraoral scanner methods by three groups with different experience level. Materials and Methods: Fifty participantswith intact maxillary incisor teeth were selected. Thirty evaluators with different experience level (6th year students, less than 2 years' experience and prosthodontists) evaluated teeth shade.The shade of middle third of right maxillary central incisors were recorded using visual, spectrophotometric and intraoral scanners methods. Tooth color records (VITA 3D shade and L* a* b* values) were collected, the average repeatability of each evaluator and each method were tabulated and subjected to suitable statistical analysis. Results: Instrumental methods were more repeatable than visual methods. Intraoral scanner (Trios 3) recorded better repeatability(94%) than VITA Easyshade Advance spectrophotometer (93%) but the difference was statistically non-significant. when comparing the three methods, a statistically significant proportion of agreement between both [ visual and spectrophotometric method (P < 0.01)] and [the visual and intraoral scanner method (P < 0.01)] with high percentage of agreements “yes” .In the visual method, the prosthodontists records were more repeatable (84.16%)followed by dentist with less than 2 years' experience (83.8%) then thestudents (81.5%), but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Instrumental methods for shade selection using spectrophotometer or intraoral scanner were more repeatable than the visual method. Trios3 intraoral scanner showed higher repeatability than Easy shade spectrophotometer. Visual shade repeatability was influenced by the operator's experience.