THE TOOTH SHADE MATCHING ABILITY AMONG DENTAL PROFESSIONALS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

BACKGROUND: Shade matching presents a complex and multidimensional process that involves the cognitive ability of the operator. Hence, dental professionals need to have high shade matching skill. OBJECTIVE: To compare the shade matching ability among three categories of dental professionals and assess the inter-examiner reliability of the visual shade selection. METHODS: This was a cross sectional study involving conventional visual tooth shade selection by three categories of dental professionals. Twenty four patients that met the selection criteria were included in the study and Ethical approval duly obtained. Visual shade selection using vital classical shade guide was done by calibrated 3 categories of the dental professionals. Data collected was analysed using IBM SPSS with statistical significance placed at p ≤0.05 RESULTS: There were 9 (37.5%) male and 15 (62.5%) female participants with mean age ±SD of 39.9 ± 18.47 years. In the shade selection, the dental surgery technician and the house officer agreed in 2 (7.7%) teeth, dental surgery technician and consultant in 6 (23.1%) teeth while the house officer and consultant did so for 8 (30.8%) teeth. The three examiners agreed on shades selected for only 1 (3.8%) tooth. Inter-examiner reliability was 0.11. Shades selected by the consultant matched that of the spectrophotometer in 3 of the 26 teeth (11.5%) being the best. CONCLUSION: Inter-examiner reliability was very low in the conventional visual shade selection. Experience and training in colour science and shade selection may play a role in correct tooth shade selection.