Do tinted glasses influence the shade determination capability?

Introduction:

After the Shade Determination Curriculum of the Toothguide Trainer has been clinically proven, its application is now being examined under various clinical settings.

Objectives:

The aim of this study was to determine whether tinted glasses have an influence on the shade determination capability.

Materials and Methods:

69 students from the dental clinics in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Greifswald, Leipzig were included in the study. Participants were randomized into a study and a control group. First, a colour perception check using the Ishihara, Farnsworth and Lanthony test were done in all participants to exclude colour-deficient test participants. All students trained and tested their shade determination capability with the aid of the Toothguide Trainer and the Touthguide Training Box. Subsequently, the two groups, the study group with 20 % dark-tinted and the control group without glasses, determined the shades of 15 sample teeth.

Results:

The study group included 31 and the control group 38 subjects.

Errors between the sample teeth and the selected ones were recorded as delta Lab. All errors of the participants were added. Statistical evaluation yielded an average value of 31.50 for the study group and 32.97 for the control group with a standard deviation of 12.36 to 17.73 and a standard error of 2.22 to 2.88 with a 99% confidence interval of 6.10 to 7.81.

Differentiation according to errors in lightness, intensity, hue yielded median values for lightness of 3 in the study group to 3 in the control group with a standard deviation 1.565 to 1.94 and a 99% confidence interval of 0.773 to 0.854.

Conclusion:

The results show minor errors in the comparison of the lightness determination in the two groups. All other results revealed no significant differences between the groups. Thus it can be concluded that dark-tinted glasses have no influence on the shade determination capability.