The effect of color vision resolution on intra-oral shade-selection accuracy

BACKGROUND: Dentists must be able to identify subtle color changes as shade-matching is crucial in aesthetic dentistry. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether color discrimination ability is related to shade-matching accuracy among dentists. METHODS: The sensitivity of the normal-color vision population to different colors was investigated using Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue (FM-100) test results. The FM-100 test was administered to 37 dentists at the Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University. Sensitivity of dentists with normal-color vision to different colors was investigated using the FM-100 test. Participants were instructed to arrange color caps of various colors according to the gradual change in colors and the results were scored. Visual shade matching test using Vita 3D-MASTER shade guide was performed to determine shade-matching accuracy. The relationship between color discrimination ability and shade-matching accuracy was analyzed. The number of misplaced color caps in the FM-100 test was also calculated. RESULTS: The FM-100 test revealed that 16 and 21 participants had excellent and average color discrimination ability, respectively, and their shade-matching accuracies were 68.75% and 66.67%, respectively. No significant difference was observed in the shade-matching accuracy between the two groups. No significant correlation was observed between the color discrimination ability and shade-matching accuracy. In addition, the number of wrong color caps on the 43-63 color tray with the transition from blue-green to blue-purple was the highest according to Friedman's test. CONCLUSION: Color discrimination ability of dentists does not affect their visual shade-matching accuracy. Additionally, people with normal color vision are not sensitive to the transition from blue-green to blue-purple.