Harmonizing color measurements in dentistry using translucent tooth-colored materials.

Background: Since color measurements are relative, the discrepancy among different instruments is alarmingly high. This multicenter study evaluated the effectiveness of instrument calibration and inter-instrument harmonization of different spectrophotometers with the same optical geometry using tooth-colored, translucent dental materials.

Methods: The coordinating center (CC) spectrophotometer was calibrated using the NPL Ceram Series II set. Two sets of 10 specimens, labeled 1 to 10 and I to X (10 mm in diameter and 1 mm thick), were tested at CC and three research sites (RS1, RS2, and RS3) using the same d/8° optical geometry spectrophotometers. Calibration factors were calculated for each material and site to obtain the average calibration factors for sets 1-10, set I-X, and the combination of both. The differences among the non-corrected and corrected reflection values were calculated using CIEDE2000 (DeltaE) and CIELAB (DeltaE) color difference formulas and were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey test (α = 0.05).

Results: A significant decrease of color differences between non-corrected as compared to corrected measurements was recorded for all CC-RS and RS-RS comparisons. The reduction of DeltaE values between non-corrected and corrected for CC-RS1, CC-RS2, and CC-RS3 were 83.1%, 77.2%, and 73.6%, respectively. The corresponding DeltaE values for RS1-RS2, RS1-RS3, and RS2-RS3 comparisons, indirectly compared in the experiment, were 84.2%, 82.8%, and 68.5%, respectively. There was a significant reduction of DeltaE and DeltaE color difference for all combined RS pairs and each of three RS pairs, corrected with one of two specimen sets calibration factors separately.

Conclusions: Calibration and harmonization of color measurements in dentistry using tooth-colored, translucent restorative materials significantly decreased measurement discrepancies between the coordinating center and research sites and among pairs of research sites.