title: Repeatability and reliability of human eye in visual shade selection.
abstract: Deficiencies in the human visual percep-tion system have challenged the efficiency of the visual shade-matching protocol. The aim of this study was to evaluate the repeatability and reliability of human eye in visual shade selection. Fifty-four volunteering dentists were asked to match the shade of an upper right central incisor tooth of a single subject. The Vita 3D-Master shade guide was used for the protocol. Before each shade-matching procedure, the definitive codes of the shade tabs were hidden by an opaque strip and the shade tabs were placed into the guide randomly. The procedure was repeated 1 month later to ensure that visual memory did not affect the results. The L*, a* and b* values of the shade tabs were measured with a dental spectrophotometer (Vita Easyshade) to produce quantitative values to evaluate the protocol. The paired samples t-test and Pearson correlation test were used to compare the 1st and 2nd selections. The Yates-corrected chi-square test was use to compare qualitative values. Statistical significance was accepted at P < 0·05. Comparing baseline and 1st month records, statistical significance (P < 0·001) was found among qualitative data regarding repeatability on a yes/no (1/0) basis, revealing a very low percentage of repeatability (11·1%). Comparing baseline and 1st month records, statistical significance was not found (P = 0·000) among the L*, a*, b* and ΔE variables. These results indicate that dentists perform insufficiently regarding repeatability in visual shade matching, but they are able to select clinically acceptable shades.
authors.affiliation: Keçiborlu State Hospital, Isparta, Keçiborlu, Turkey.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Özat
authors.forename: İ
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Tuncel
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eroğlu
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D017267:Dental Prosthesis Design; D003815:Dentists / Q000592:standards*; D004954:Esthetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D017797:Prosthesis Coloring / Q000295:instrumentation; D011476:Prosthodontics / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D014070:Tooth
keywords: reliability; repeatability; visual shade selection