Methods: 74 participants compared 10 masked shade tabs, taken from a V3DM shade guide, with a complete shade guide of the same system and selected the closest match. An educational PowerPoint® presentation on shade taking was then studied. Participants were randomly allocated to two groups (A and B). Group A used TTB for fifteen minutes. All participants then repeated matching the 10 masked shade tabs with the complete shade guide. The mean difference in colour (mean delta E) between chosen and masked shade tabs was determined by use of spectrometer (SpectroShade®) measurements. Mean delta E values between the masked shade tabs and corresponding tabs from the complete shade guide were determined.
Results: The overall mean of delta E values between tabs of the same shade from the two shade guides was 0.71. No significant difference was found in mean delta E values before and after training for both groups, or for the change in delta E values following training between the two groups. There was no correlation between baseline shade taking performance and gender, age, experience, time taken to match ten shades, previous use of the same shade guide, previous training and the ability to recognise a selection of Ishihara's test plates. Cross group comparison revealed dentists performed better than dental nurses.
Conclusion: Use of the TTB for fifteen minutes did not result in a change in shade taking performance when assessed by the ability to match masked shade tabs. The effect of training on shade taking performance is not fully understood and requires further investigation.