A Comparative Study of Tooth Shade Selection Methods Between Visual, Smartphone Camera, and Vita Easyshade Spectrophotometer

Recently, dental esthetics have increasingly emphasized appearance, with tooth shade selection complicated by the enamel and dentin's translucency and opacity. Smartphone cameras are useful for shade matching. Currently, no study has directly compared the accuracy of this method. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the accuracy of the visual method, smartphone photography, and the Vita Easyshade spectrophotometer, particularly for chroma, value, and hue. This cross-sectional study involved a convenient sample of 82 dental students from the College of Dental Medicine at Umm Al-Qura University, including those in their 5 , 6 , and 7 (intern) years. The VITA classical shade guide was utilized to compare three methods of shade selection: the conventional visual method, smartphone photography, and the Vita Easyshade spectrophotometer. The percentage accuracy for each method was calculated with a 95% confidence interval (CI), using the visual method as the reference standard. Statistical comparisons of the shade selection methods, as well as gender differences, were performed using a Chi-Square test. Fisher's exact test was applied where expected cell counts were below five. Stata software was used with a significance threshold of 0.05. The current study included 82 subjects; 42 were females and 40 were males. There was no significant difference between male and female students in the measured accuracy by using the three methods except for hue when the photo method was used (p=0.015). For chroma (p=0.094), value (p=0.965), and hue (p=0.094), the photo method was comparable in accuracy to the visual method. The accuracy was slightly higher for the photo method, but this difference was not statistically significant. The Easyshade was also comparable to the visual method in chroma (p=0.674), significantly lower when assessing value (p=0.002) and not statistically lower when assessing hue (p=0.094). Comparing the results of the same method, the accuracy of shade selection was highest for chroma, followed by value, and lowest for hue. Within the limitations of this study, digital photography using a smartphone camera may serve as a reliable method for clinicians in shade selection during clinical practice.