A study on the color distribution of natural teeth by age and gender in the Korean population with an intraoral spectrophotometer

Objective To investigate the distribution of natural tooth shades by age and gender in the Korean population with a spectrophotometer. Material and Methods A total of 674 human subjects were recruited and divided into three age groups; young (16‐30), middle (31‐59), and elderly (60‐89). Each group was then subdivided according to gender. Color was measured on the upper central incisor and CIELab color coordinates were obtained. CIEDE2000 color differences ( ΔE00) between genders within each age group and between age groups for both genders were calculated. Two‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to identify the influence of age and gender on each color variable. Results The most frequent color in the Korean population was 2L1.5. L* values decreased, while b* values increased with age (P