Differences in Color Between Fired Porcelain and Shade Guides

The inaccuracy of premixed porcelain shades may cause errors when color matching porcelain crowns. Most brands of porcelain are labeled to match shades of the Vita shade guide, but produce slightly different colors from this guide upon firing. The purpose of this study was to quantify in CIE delta E* units the color differences between the Vita shade guide colors and four commercial porcelains for metal ceramic crowns. Two operators prepared shade-guide teeth from six shades of four brands of porcelain. Opaque, body, and incisal layers were fired in the form of shade-guide teeth on Vita ceramic carriers used for making custom shade-guide teeth. The colors of these teeth were measured with a Beckman spectrophotometer with an integrating sphere. The average delta E* values for the differences between the colors of the Vita shade guide and the fired porcelains for each of the brands were 3.1, 2.9, 4.1, and 2.0, respectively, for the first operator and 4.1, 2.6, 2.8, and 1.6, respectively, for the second operator. The color difference between the custom shade-guide teeth and the Vita master shade guide were significantly affected by both brands and shades. The overall average error resulting from the differences in colors between the Vita shade guide and fired porcelains was 3.0 for the first operator and 2.8 for the second operator. The mean delta E* between the teeth prepared by the two operators was 3.6. The color difference between the teeth made by the two operators was not significantly affected by brands or shades.