Purpose: To evaluate the clinical application of digital photography in special color teeth, and to explore the role and the problems s of digital photos to improve cosmetic effect.
Methods: Digital photography combined visual color-matching was applied in 50 cases with special color teeth in ceramic restorations selected randomly. Then the satisfactory degree of the patients and dentists was evaluated and the value of L*a*b* between prosthesis and its neighbors was collected by self-developed software Dental ImgShop. Chroma (C(ab) )and hue (h(ab) degrees ) were calculated according to the value of a and b. The data was analyzed with paired t test using SAS6.12 software package, so as chromatic aberration (deltaE).
Results: The satisfactory degree of the patients was 98%, and the satisfaction degree of the dentists was 94%. The range of L, a ,b C(ab), h(ab) degrees of special color teeth was 54.50-92.29, -0.97-8.12,-0.73-20.85,0.85-21.34,29.73-89.20, respectively. There was no significant difference between the prosthesis and their neighbors statistically (P>0.05). The mean value of chromatic aberration (deltaE) was 0.948(0.136-3.45), and only 3 cases were unacceptable (deltaE>/=2).
Conclusions: Digital photography could record and transmit the color information of special color teeth more exactly, and could improve the patients satisfaction and the cosmetic effect in color measuring. Supported by Research Fund of Natural Science for Young Scholars of Minhang Central Hospital.