title: Visual and instrumental discrimination steps between two adjacent porcelain shades.
abstract: Two different porcelain systems were compared over the B1 to B2 shade ranges visually and spectrophotometrically. Six samples of each porcelain were made by blending weighed increments of opaque and body porcelain and firing the blended compositions onto Option metal disks according to manufacturer's instructions. Compositional blends varied incrementally by 20% in steps. Selective blending of porcelain shades was shown to have an effect in improving the range of choices within the shade guide system. The human eye was capable of detecting small-step changes between two steps of the Vita shade guide. Systematic color changes occurred with compositional changes between B1 and B2. It appears from the overall results observed that a desired blending of porcelains at smaller intervals than full shade guide steps could be done more easily with Jelenko than with Vita porcelain. The visual rankings agreed more closely with the manufacturer's expectations than did the instrumental measurements.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Ecker
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Moser
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D003776:Dental Porcelain / Q000032:analysis; D003779:Denture Design / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008029:Lighting; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D003776:Dental Porcelain