For a long time there was no standard procedure for dental surgeons to describe the color of their patient’s teeth – leave alone being able to communicate it to the patients or porcelain manufacturers to ensure there was a similarity to give the end result that would afford one a beautiful smile. But with the growing popularity of cosmetic dentistry, the business of “shade management” is alive and well – and finding ever more sophisticated ways of identifying and communicating tooth color.

Hue, Chroma, and Value

Woman bleaching her teeth

There is a lot that that has gone ion today and dental schools can actually discuss tooth coloration in much more detail; the basics have generally been with us for some time now. The method is known as the Munsell method where all the tooth colors are based on three criteria: hue, chroma and value.

Hue: This refers to the underlying color of existing teeth compared to color groupings of brown, yellow, grey and reddish-grey.

Chroma: this refers to the intensity of the underlying color

Value: is the black/white value of a tooth’s appearance, or how bright it appears to be.

That means that a good dentist will need to evaluate your teeth first by looking at the hue and try to figure out whether or not the whitening process will be of any effect at all. How what will your teeth be if they can actually qualify for the process? The results will be based on the existing undertone. It is generally agreed that people who have a yellow undertone have higher degrees of whitening success than people with a brownish undertone. For people with gray undertones, however, there’s some disappointing news. These teeth are generally the least responsive when it comes to bleaching.

A Master Plan

Dental surgery today has formulated a shade management system that helps to determine how white your white is going to be at the end of the bleaching process. This can be done either visually or in some cases a digital matching criteria can be used. This is a new and up coming system that is being used especially in the areas of restoration. Shade management systems are critical because they let your dentist communicate the color of your teeth to staff members and refer to it when selecting whitening options for you. With a shade management system, your dentist can also show you the color of your teeth now – and the expected whitening results. If you have a dentist who is using a visual observation there are high chances he is using a shade guide which generally features differently shaded ceramic productions of individual teeth that are grouped together and labeled for referral and categorization.

The most commonly used shade guides are made in three basic styles: Basic or Classic Shade Guides, the Master Shade Guide and the Extended Shade Guide for use when determining optimal shades for whitening. The Classic Shade Guide is really two guides – one guide is used to determine hue and chroma (in that order), while a separate guide is used to determine value. With The Classic Shade Guide, the shade tabs or teeth reproductions are shown in groups of similar hues within the holder. The A shades are brown, B shades are yellow, C shades are grey and the D shades reddish-grey. A tooth’s chroma (or color intensity) is then identified with a number from 1-4. To determine the value (or brightness) of a tooth, a value shade guide is needed.

The chroma and hue of your teeth are represented within each set value. By using this guide the dentist will be able to select the value or lightness of the color of the tooth at the very onset before any processes are gotten into. The chroma, or color saturation, is identified next by determining which of the hues in the group matches the tooth color. The hue is identified by selecting the color samples to the right or left of the M (median) hue (right indicates R and left indicates L tones in the tooth color).

The Bleach guide offers dentist a look at 15 bleached shades of teeth and with that he is able to determine the correct whitening procedures that he is going to follow including the best way to determine the exact results that can be expected at the end of the procedure simply based on the hue, value and chroma.

The Digital Revolution

Today engineers are trying to develop and improve existing digital technology which is even going to be more likely to determine a tooth’s existing color and the potential outcome if it is subjected to the bleaching process. With this new procedure the dentist simply uses a hand held digital shade taking device up to the tooth and by use of artificial vision technology; a scanning unit takes measurements, maps and communicates the true parameters of the tooth color to a connected computer. This will allow for a constant and accurate feed of light on the tooth at all times. In return, the outcome is a standard color because the light source is being generated directly from the shade-taking device. There is the same light illumination at all times, allowing equipment makers to standardize the color for a much better interpretation. Once the picture of the tooth is taken, it is saved, uploaded and printed out. A colorimeter, the software inside of the scanner, determines the color. The entire process from start to finish is done in less than one minute. Not only does this method make identifying shades objective and consistent, it allows for a digital record of shades.

Before you venture to the field of teeth whitening it would be a good thing to check if you really can describe the shade of your teeth as they are right now. Of course when you set an appointment with your dentist he or she is also going to try and determine what the shade of your teeth is currently and determine whether you could qualify as a candidate for the bleaching procedure of whitening teeth.