Evaluation of Shade Matching Abilities of Dental Students and Dentists in Different Age Groups

Objectives: The visual system changes in many ways as the human body ages. These changes can affect dentists’ tooth shade matching abilities. The object of this study was to evaluate the influence of age on shade matching quality, and to compare the shade matching abilities of dentists and dental students in different age groups.
Methods: This study was performed in Atatürk University, Faculty of Dentistry. Fifty dentists between 25-65 years old(Ten from each of the following age groups: 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-49, and 50-65) and ten dental students between 18-24 years old with normal color vision (all participants performed the Ishihara’s Color Blindness Test) were included in this study. All participants were asked to match a pair set of the Noritake shade guides in 10 minutes. This test was performed on a neutral grey background and under controlled light. One-way ANOVA and Chi-square tests were used to analyse the data. Also independent t-test was performed for gender differences.
Results: In total sixty dentists and dental students participated in this study. There were no significant differences in shade matching scores between the six age groups.(p=0,735) For example, the rate of success in matching shade guides was 45,5% in 18-24 year age group, 57% in 30-34 year age group and 48,5% in 50-65 year age group. The highest success rate was observed for matching C4 shade (91,6%). Matching A3 (25%) and D2 (25%) had the lowest success rate.
Conclusions: The results of this study revealed that tooth shade matching ability was affected positively with experience, but after a certain age aging had more negative effects.