Dental student, dentist, dental assistant, and layperson perception of pink gingival porcelain color

How pink gingival porcelain color is perceived by participants classified according to profession and sex is unclear. The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the degree of correlation between the ordering of color tabs by participants classified according to profession, years of dental work experience, and sex and the ideal chromatic order based on the color coordinate L∗ (lightness). Twenty-one colored specimens made of Heraceram pink gingival porcelain were used. A group of 352 participants (118 men and 234 women) comprised of dental students (n=126), dentists (n=54), dental assistants (n=56), and laypersons (n=116) were enrolled. They were asked to order the specimens starting from the lightest to the darkest. The Kendall coefficients of concordance W and correlation T were used to determine whether the individuals in each experimental group rating the specimens were consistent and accurate. The degree of agreement between the ideal ordering and that carried out by the participants within the different professional categories was greater than 0.8 in all assessments. No statistically significant differences were found among the groups in relation to professional category, work experience, or sex (P>.05). The Kendall coefficients were higher in the ranking of the darker specimens for all groups of participants. No statistically significant differences were found among dentists, dental assistants, dental students, and laypersons in the arrangement of pink porcelain specimens according to their lightness. In addition, in all groups, the darker gingival specimens were ordered significantly better according to their lightness than the lighter specimens.