Due to interhuman differences in the perception of color, visual shade assessment of human teeth is lacking standardization that may be improved by the use of a spectrophotometer. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that spectrophotometric assessment of tooth color is comparable with human visual determination. On 30 patients, three operators with unreported visual color deficiency independently selected the best match to the middle third of unrestored maxillary central incisors, using a Vita Classical Shade Guide. The same teeth were measured by means of a reflectance spectrophotometer. In the human group, all 3 visual shade selections matched in only 26.6%. In the spectrophotometric group, all 3 shade selections matched in 83.3%. In 93.3%, Delta E values of visually assessed tooth shades were higher than spectrophotometrically assessed Delta E values (p < 0.0001). The results suggest that spectrophotometric shade analysis is more accurate and more reproducible compared with human shade assessment.

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Temporization of prepared teeth is needed for protection of the pulp and the restoration of the patients' aesthetic and functional needs. When zinc-oxyphosphate cement is used, eugenol-containing provisional cements are preferred because of their sedative effect to the pulp and because of their acceptable compressive strength. However, prior to definitive adhesive cementation with composite luting resins and dentine bonding agents the use of eugenol-containing provisional cements has to be considered critical because eugenol severely disturbs the polymerization of resinous materials. The purpose of this study was to compare shear bond strength values of various adhesive luting systems on dentine which had been in contact with various provisional cements prior to dentine bonding. The results show that the provisional cements which were used considerably decreased some of the bond strength values of the dentine bonding systems tested. Freegenol and Fermit, however, seem to have beneficial effects on the SBS values of Syntac and ART Bond. The only bonding system which produces acceptably high average SBS values with a eugenol-containing provisional cement was P-Bond.

After an observation time of 1.5-5.5 years all implants demonstrated very stable soft tissue levels with little if any recession on mesial, distal and labial aspects and an esthetic score that was reasonable directly after temporization and developed toward maximum scores over time.