Comparative study of shade matching performance of dental students under natural daylight and daylight lamp conditions

Background: As visual shade matching is subject to light source variables, this study was conducted to compare shade matching performance of dental students under two lighting conditions, ie, natural daylight and a commercially available daylight lamp. Materials and methods: Two sets of porcelain discs were prepared. The first set consisted of eight porcelain discs of shades A2, A3, A3.5, B2, B3, C2, C3, and D3 of the Vitapan Classical Shade Guide system. The second set consisted of three porcelain discs of shade A2, B2, and C2, having exactly similar L*a*b* values to those of the corresponding shade discs in the first set. Forty dental students were asked to find the closest match for the shades A2, B2, and C2 in the second set from the first set under natural daylight and daylight lamp conditions. The average ΔE between the presented and selected shade was calculated for each participant under the two lighting conditions. The significance was statistically assessed using a paired t test. Results: The average ΔE between presented and selected shade for individual participants under natural daylight ranged from 0 to 4.84, with a mean of 2.24, while those under daylight lamp conditions ranged from 0 to 3.68, with a mean of 1.14. The difference was statistically significant, with P 0.0001. Conclusion: Daylight lamp conditions significantly improved the shade matching performance of dental students.