Color assessment in dental prostheses: the use of smartphones as process tools

Abstract

Accurate color selection of direct or indirect dental restorations is a subjective task. Mobile phones are tools that may minimize color assessment errors. Objective: To use photographs taken with smartphones to guide the dental surgeon in choosing the right color in oral rehabilitation. Material and Methods: A tooth was photographed for color assessment and the VITA Toothguide 3D-MASTER® shade guide was used. Photographs were submitted to an image editing software for full saturation removal. Images of the tooth and scale in black and white were compared. Results: This method allowed to select the tooth’s value, which is considered the most subjective dimension in color choice. Conclusion: Although it is an auxiliary and complementary method to traditional methods, smartphones are tools capable of reducing the range of color possibilities and minimizing possible failures.KeywordsColor; Photograph; Smartphone.

Color variations during digital imaging of facial prostheses subjected to unfiltered ambient light and image calibration techniques within dental clinics: An in vitro analysis

“…In practice, this will create unrealistic red colorcasts for the gingiva images and will produce yellowness for the teeth [ 38 ]. But the situation was favorable for the current study, when PPWBC was done using a gray card and the photo box was placed within a windowless clinic [ 8 , 10 ].…”

“…Evidently, digital dentistry has adopted non-contact color measuring devices such as professional digital camera, intraoral cameras [ 58 , 59 ] and smartphone cameras [ 1 , 10 ] to ease procedures of tooth color analysis within the dental clinics. Nowadays, to generate 3-dimensional virtual models, an intraoral scanner is mostly used.…”

“…To answer research question 2, the images were calibrated by using different color calibration methods namely, a) no color calibration images (raw image), b) CWBC by using gray reference card [ 8 , 10 ], c) PPWBC by using gray card and Macbeth color chart [ 8 , 39 ]. CWBC and PPWBC procedures are described as follow:…”

“…Other options of professional color calibration through white balance corrections have been proposed in the past such as camera white balance calibration (CWBC) [ 10 ] and computerized software-based post-processing white balance calibration (PPWBC) [ 5 ]. These methods require tools ranging from inexpensive single color calibration cards (ex.…”

Dental Shade Matching: Recent Technologies and Future Smart Applications

“…Then selection of the appropriate shade was based on the closest value of the shade tabs processed in the same way [36]. Later a detailed clinical protocol for shade matching using the monochrome concept was defined by Albert, et al, in which a photograph of 3D VITA shade guide was taken through a smartphone camera using natural light [37]. Then a patient tooth was photographed, and the two images were processed to black and white scale (monochromatic) to choose the value of the shade.…”