title: A Custom Made Intrinsic Silicone Shade Guide for Indian Population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Replication of natural skin colour in maxillofacial prosthesis has been traditionally done using trial and error method, as concrete shade guides are unavailable till date. Hence a novel custom made intrinsic silicone shade guide has been attempted for Indian population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Reconstruction of maxillofacial defects is challenging, as achieving an aesthetic result is not always easy. A concoction of a novel intrinsic silicone shade guide was contemplated for the study and its reproducibility in clinical practice was analysed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical grade room temperature vulcanising silicone was used for the fabrication of shade tabs. The shade guide consisted of three main groups I, II and III which were divided based upon the hues yellow, red and blue respectively. Five distinct intrinsic pigments were added in definite proportions to subdivide each group of different values from lighter to darker shades. A total number of 15 circular shade tabs comprised the guide. To validate the usage of the guide, visual assessment of colour matching was done by four investigators to investigate the consent of perfect colour correspondence. Data was statistically analysed using kappa coefficients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The kappa values were found to be 0.47 to 0.78 for yellow based group I, 0.13 to 0.65 for red based group II, and 0.07 to 0.36 for blue based group III. This revealed that the shade tabs of yellow and red based hues matched well and showed a statistically good colour matching.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This intrinsic silicone shade guide can be effectively utilised for fabrication of maxillofacial prosthesis with silicone in Indian population. A transparent colour formula with definite proportioning of intrinsic pigments is provided for obtaining an aesthetic match to skin tone.
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Prosthodontics, SRM Dental College , Ramapuram, Chennai, India .
authors.forename: K V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Anitha
authors.affiliation: Specialist Prosthodontist, Ambulatory Healthcare Services , SEHA (Govt. of Abudhabi), UAE .
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Behanam
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Prosthodontics, SRM Dental College , Ramapuram, Chennai, India .
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Ahila
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Prosthodontics, SRM Dental College , Ramapuram, Chennai, India .
authors.forename: J Brintha
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Jei
keywords: Colour; Human skin; Maxillofacial prosthesis; Prosthodontics; Spectrophotometer