Comparing color coordinates of three ceramic systems with corresponding shade guide

Increase of esthetic demands among dental patients has led to development and wide spread use of tooth colored ceramic systems for fabricating fixed restorations. However, they do not have same capability of matching the target color. The aim of this study was to compare the color coordinates of three widely used systems with A2 tab from a Vita Lumin Classic shade guide.
In this study, three ceramic systems were tested. The metal-ceramic(MCR) with 0.5 mm core and 1 mm Ceramco lll veneering layer; the all ceramic (CE) with 0.5 mm Cercon core and 1 mm Cercon Ceram veneering layer, and the all porcelain (VM7) with 1.5 mm Vita VM7. For each system, 15 disks (1.5mm×10mm) were made in Vita A2 shade. L*a*b* coordinates of the samples were measured by spectrophotometer and the color difference with Vita A2 shade was calculated. The data were analyzed using one way ANOVA and multiple Tukey tests.
The color coordinates of the target shade was L*=72.45, a=1.59 and b*=14.11. The mean L*a*b* values for MCR were 72.61±0.38, 2.88±0.24, 15.51±0.64, for CE were 76.42±0.46, 2.77±0.14, 17.51±0.61, and for VM7 were 75.13±0.6, 2.15±0.19, 17.9±0.61, respectively. The difference between coordinates of each system with target shade was significant. Only for MCR group, ΔE was in acceptable range (1.98). For CE (Δ=5.38) and VM7 (Δ=4.72) groups, the difference was unacceptable.
Under the condition of this study, the metal-ceramic system had the best and acceptable match to the target shade.