Effects of Instrument-measuring Geometry on Colorimetric Assessments of Dental Porcelains

Abstract

Recent developments in optical electronic instrumentation for color control have made the potential use of clinical photometric analysis a future possibility for dental materials selection and custom restoration design. The development of such instrumentation will require a more complete understanding of the performance of current technologies on translucent materials. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of instrument-measuring geometry on color-difference assessments made on dental porcelains. The results indicate that a high degree of correlation can exist between color-difference measurements regardless of the design of the instrument-measuring geometry. This work suggests that the development of clinically useful devices need not be restricted to more traditional integrating-sphere-type designs and that more photometrically efficient alternative designs should be explored.