Trueness of shade matching with intraoral scanners low compared to spectrophotometers, finds study

This systematic review and meta-analysis compared the accuracy of intraoral scanners and spectrophotometers in determining tooth shade. An electronic search of five databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, CENTRAL) was conducted on October 19, 2023. A total of 163 studies were identified from the databases, of which 23 articles were eligible for inclusion.

In vivo and in vitro quasi-experimental studies were included. After data extraction, a quantitative analysis was performed to determine the accuracy of the intraoral scanner in subgroups using four outcomes: trueness and precision with different measurement locations. A random-effects model was used to pool effect sizes.

The pooled proportion with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used for the effect size measure.

Results: Eleven articles were included in the meta-analysis. Trueness with the intraoral scanner was between 0.28 (CI: 0.09–0.60) and 0.38 (CI: 0.24–0.53). Repeatability was between 0.81 (CI: 0.64–0.91) and 0.85 (CI: 0.74–0.92). Trueness showed low, and precision had moderate certainty of evidence. The trueness of shade matching with intraoral scanners is low compared to spectrophotometers, although the precision is considered high and is similar to spectrophotometers.

Reference:

Vitai, V., Németh, A., Teutsch, B., Kelemen, K., Fazekas, A., Hegyi, P., Németh, O., Kerémi, B. and Borbély, J. (2024), Color Comparison Between Intraoral Scanner and Spectrophotometer Shade Matching: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Esthet Restor Dent. https://doi.org/10.1111/jerd.13309