THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAINING AND EDUCATION IN ACCURATE EVALUATION OF NATURAL TOOTH COLOR

Abstract

Color is undoubtedly one of the parameters with the highest weight when it comes to assessing the quality of restoration by the patient, especially in the anterior zone of the oral cavity. By precisely matching the restoration color with the remaining teeth, the possibility of inconvenience such as a correction or re-making of the same restoration is minimized. Since determining tooth color in everyday practice is done visually by using specially made color selection shade guides, unawareness of the correct method and the conditions under which it should be administered may increase the failure of the therapy. The aim of our research was to determine whether education and training in determining tooth color influence the choice of precise and correct shade. The study included a total of (N = 90)dental medicine students who were first tested with the Ishihara color vision test and Farnsworth-Munsell 100 HueColor Vision test to exclude the possibility of an error due to the presence of a color vision anomaly of the eye. We have formed two groups with an equal number of respondents, work and control group. Both groups were tested twice with a special color coding program ToothGuideTrainer WEB-final exam, which uses VITA Linearguide 3D-MASTER® shade guide. During the testing, the working group went through education, in the form of lectures, exercises and training tests for determining the color. The control group did not attend the training. The results from both tests were electronically counted. Mean value and standard deviation were determined. Differences between the work and control group were analyzed with t-test. The workgroup showed statistically significant higher points after education and training than the control group. The points earned before training did not differ significantly between the two groups. The education and training for shade matching in dentistry significantly affect the success of selecting the perfect color for future restoration. It is necessary to include more intensive training in determining color within the program of dental medicine studies. The conditions in which the tooth color matching is performed should be strictly controlled.