Appropriate Shades for Dental Crowns and Bridges

One of the most frustrating challenges in aesthetics is to pick the appropriate shades for crown and bridge.

I end up sending back about 25% of my dental cases for shade modification. I have talked with several dental labs about buying one of the computer assisted shade selection devices. I have also talked to the dental labs about taking digital photographs and e-mailing them. I do not have a good eye for aesthetics. What have you all been doing about this?

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Filed Under Fixed Prosthodontics, Restorative 

Comments

4 Responses to “Appropriate Shades for Dental Crowns and Bridges”

  1. Mark Adams, DDS, MS on March 14th, 2006 6:02 pm

    Emailing digital photographs doesn’t work…too many variables, monitors need to be color correct, etc. You are better off printing your own photos with a shade guide in place - if your camera is histogram capable, correct for perfect exposure with the histogram…dont’ use TTL flash, as you will always underexpose - then use software to ‘expand’ the narrow tonal range of digital cameras to the broad tonal range that the eye sees - I use Adobe Photoshop - it sounds complex but is not - I rarely miss a shade - see Dr. Greg Lutke, www.dental-solutions.com for more info.

  2. Anonymous on March 15th, 2006 12:19 am

    Some dentists who are colorblind will train their assistants or other office staff to pick shades. It might work to send your selected staff to be trained by your lab especially if you use a smaller lab and can consistantly work with the same tech.

  3. Carl J Humphries Dental Ceramics Exmouth Devon UK on March 15th, 2006 3:40 am

    Taking shades can be a nightmare especially the single crown but if you can`t get the lab to do the shade because of distance or patient unable to travel.Then using a good photograph - digital or otherwise with a shade tab present can be very useful for the ceramics technician.Vita`s 3D-master shade guide is far better than the classic and when you have got used to the technique of value,hue and chroma the shade guide gives you better results. Remember to use a correct colour corrected light and to make sure your lab uses the same correct light source. Also make sure the patient is not wearing strong clours that influence your shade decision.Take a look at the colour of the walls of your surgery and take the shade with the patient sat up or standing and if you want to use day light then choose north light between 11 and 2.
    There are many shade taking machines and all of them have some merits but are still very expense. Try a few of them and discuss with your technician as they need to feel happy with the colour shade map that it produces.Remember to give your technician as much information as possible and that your choice of restoration (bonded or all ceramic)will also influence the final results. Good luck.

  4. Monique Kramer on March 15th, 2006 11:06 am

    After reading the posting above and coming from a lab opinion, the best tools is a picture w/shade tabs (showing the shade of course). We have Xrite, and it is a nice tool, but the more you can give a tech the better!!! Thank you!

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