Learning Shade Differentiation Using Toothguide Trainer and Toothguide Training Box: A Longitudinal Study with Dental Students

Abstract

The positive training effect achieved with the Toothguide Training Box (TTB) has been demonstrated in previous studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the training effect with the TTB at six and 12 months using standardized color tests. The study involved 101 dental students. The participants were divided into two study groups and one control group. Ten standard color samples were determined under uniform environmental conditions with VITA 3D-Master. The control group (N=30) took the color test after one week. Study group 1 (N=49) took the color test after six months and study group 2 (N=22) at 12 months for the first time by following the TTB curriculum. The control group achieved an average ΔEt1=0.85. In study group 1, the ΔEt2 was 2.29, and in study group 2, ΔEt3=2.25. The results after six and 12 months were highly significant compared to the control group (α=0.001). Dependence was determined only with regard to gender. In this study, the TTB quickly led to an improvement in tooth color differentiation among students. After six months, there was a decrease in the training effect. These results suggest that the TTB curriculum should be provided at the end of preclinical training.Dr. Olms is Assistant Professor,

Dental Shade Matching and Value Discernment Abilities of First‐Year Dental Students

“…Those identified as having average or poor color discrimination may desire to improve their shade‐matching ability through targeted training and exercises. Toothguide Trainer (Vita) and Tooth Training Box (Vita) are a few available software programs shown to have improved dental shade matching …”

Influence of Surrounding Conditions on Visual Determination of Tooth Shade

“…The used shade guide (3D-Master, VITA Zahnfabrik) uses the same parameters for tooth color determination. All participants were tested with Color Vision Deficiency Test (CVD) using a beamer projection of the Ishihara test charts, before starting the test [26] The Toothguide-Training-Box (TTB, VITA Zahnfabrik, Figure 1) performs color matching under reproducible conditions, designed by Jakstat in 2002 and later improved in 2007 [13] . The tooth-shaped shade tabs were presented in the field of view in neutral grey background (reference).…”

“…Both further steps, the determination of chroma and hue, reduce color-matching errors with a compliance of almost 70% [6,8] . Clinical studies have demonstrated that the subjective color determination independent of the used color scale, but -in fact -gender-dependent can be learned [9,[10][11][12][13][14] . In their research with 614 participants of 15 universities in 9 countries, Haddad et al came to the conclusion that female achieved better in color determination results than male [11] and contradicts to Della Bona et al [15] who had assumed that only experience was the deciding factor in color determination.…”

The Effectiveness of a Shade‐Matching Training Program on the Dentists' Ability to Match Teeth Color

“…Many researches have investigated the effectiveness of TTB as a method of color training. A positive effect has been linked to training that uses the TT and the TTB . In a recent study, the TTB quickly led to an improvement in tooth color differentiation among students.…”

“…In a recent study, the TTB quickly led to an improvement in tooth color differentiation among students. However, after 6 months, there was a decrease in the training effect . Shade‐matching performance may be a problematic even among dental practitioners.…”