Advances in color matching

Media emphasis on an "esthetic standard" is probably responsible for driving the most recent advances in dental imaging and shade matching. Although we tend to focus on color matching, it is an appearance match that we are after, so the optical properties of translucency, light scattering, surface texture, and gloss and the basic principles of esthetics, including tooth size and proportion, symmetry, outline form, and overall harmony are just as important, if not more so, to a successful restorative match. With more research and development it should be possible to achieve a higher percentage of successful matches than the approximately 50% experienced today [4851], but even with the acceleration of progress in color matching technology, the success of a restorative effort remains dependent on adequate tooth preparation, tissue management, and treatment planning.