Optical properties of dental restorative materials in the wavelength range 400 to 700 nm for the simulation of color perception.

Aesthetic restorations require dental restorative materials to have optical properties very similar to those of the teeth. A method is developed to this end to determine the optical parameters absorption coefficient mu(a), scattering coefficient mu(s), anisotropy factor g, and effective scattering coefficient mu(s) (') of dental restorative materials. The method includes sample preparation and measurements of transmittance and reflectance in an integrating sphere spectrometer followed by inverse Monte Carlo simulations. Using this method the intrinsic optical parameters are determined for shade B2 of the light-activated composites TPH((R)) Spectrum, Esthet-X, and the Ormocer Definite in the wavelength range 400 to 700 nm. By using the determined parameters mu(a), mu(s), and g together with an appropriate phase function, the reflectance of samples with 1-mm layer thickness and shade B2 could be predicted with a very high degree of accuracy using a forward Monte Carlo simulation. The color perception was calculated from the simulated reflectance according to the CIELAB system. We initiate the compilation of a data pool of optical parameters that in the future will enable calculation models to be used as a basis for optimization of the optical approximation of the natural tooth, and the composition of new materials and their production process.