Tooth Color Appearance under Venous Types of Conventional Light Sources

Abstract

The differences of the color appearance (ΔE*ab) of teeth under each of the five test light sources, three types of fluorescent lamps, a halogen-tungsten lamp built in a dental unit and CIE standard illuminant A as a incandescent lamp, were measured in comparison with their colors in the daylight (CIE standard illuminant D₆₅) by means of the spectrophotometer and computation. The spectral reflectance curves were obtained in 55 natural and 36 artificial teeth.
The following presents the outline of the results:
(1) The value of ΔE*ab ranges from O. 67 to 4. 67, and it becomes larger when the light source is changed in the order of FL-EDL, FL-EX, FL-W, P3000 and illuminant A.
(2) Some pairs of teeth with different spectral characters can be seen to have the same color under certain conditions of illumination.
(3) Many pairs of teeth indicate the same color under the illuminant A, however one half of them do not have the same color under an illuminant of some other spectral composition. There are few pairs matching under the light of FL-EDL but most of them maintain the special condition of the same color appearance when the illuminant is changed.