Evaluating tooth color matching ability of dental students.

Visual shade matching has remained a skill acquired through clinical experience. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the shade matching ability of dental students as they progress through their education. Sixty-five students, representing four levels of experience by year enrolled in dental school, participated in this study. Students were given a preclinical shade tab matching task. They were also asked to choose the best shade match for a natural tooth in each of three patients. The natural tooth shade matching task was designed to have simple, moderate, and complex cases to match. The frequency of correct answers was compared across samples across the four levels of fundamental tab match ability and clinical experience. On average, 51 percent of the students were able to match the correct shade tab in the matching task in a bench setting. For the natural tooth color matching task, 49.2 percent of the students selected the clinically acceptable color matched shade tabs (ΔE*≤2.69). Although there was no statistically significant difference across the levels of fundamental ability and experience, rates of correct answers for natural tooth color matching progressively improved for the complex case from year 1 to year 4. This study reveals that, for complex cases, education and knowledge of color science combined with clinical experience improve students' ability for color matching in a clinical setting.