Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Dental Practitioners Towards Anterior Teeth Shade Matching in Saudi Arabia

Background: When taking into account several factors, including the kind and intensity of the light source, the season, the angle of incidence, the patient's attire, age, gender, and the time of day and year, color is one of the most crucial variables of aesthetic dentistry. The most challenging part of prosthetic dentistry is choosing a replacement tooth's color so that it blends in with the surrounding teeth and covers gingival tissue. As a result of the fact that having an understanding of the concept of color is extremely important in order to achieve good aesthetics, and the distribution of color is highly important to achieve shade matching. Aim of the study: The goal of this study was to evaluate dental professionals' self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding anterior tooth shade matching in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This research study was conducted in Saudi Arabia from February to April 2022. Two hundred fifteen registered dental practitioners participated in the cross-sectional, closed-ended questionnaire-based survey. Dental health professionals working in dental colleges, dental clinics, or other dentally significant institutions like hospitals (both government and private) and their respective private practices in various capacities as professors, teachers, or post-graduate students answered the research questionnaire. Dentists who were not involved actively in shade selection or declined to participate in contact through the mail were excluded. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used for the comparison of categorical data, and a p-value of 0.05 at 95% CI was statistically significant. Results: Among the questions that were asked, the majority of them said age, sex, gender play, and appointment timing, along with patient opinion play a very important role in shade selection. Moreover, among the patients, 34% noted the manual method of shade selection, and 45.6% of them chose a combination of manual and mechanical methods. When they were asked about the commonest reason they came across for doing a shade selection of anterior teeth, around 52.60% said aesthetics, while 20.90% said fracture of anterior teeth. While 19.1% of people used rubber dam isolation, 34.0% of them preferred the use of cotton rolls and absorbing points, and only 16.7% of them often used Teflon tape. The majority of them had difficulty with shade selection due to the light source, as viewing shades in poor quality light influences how color is perceived; thus, the quality of light is the most influential factor in shade-taking practices. Around 44.7% of them preferred to do shade selection under natural daylight. Conclusion: Based on the results obtained from the current study, the authors would like to conclude that more attention should be focused on improving the knowledge of color science and its application in aesthetic dentistry, as the color and appearance of teeth are complex phenomena with many factors. Hence, for a good aesthetic outcome to be achieved, the dentist should consider all possible entities that influence shade selection.