Dental Photography and Numeric Shade Quantification as a Substitute to Conventional and Instrumental Shade Matching Techniques in the Esthetic Zone

ELABor\_aid is a new approach to objective shade communication and shade reproduction in dentistry, based on numeric quantification obtained from standardized RGB (red-green-blue) images, and the formulation of a patient personal shade recipe using trichromatic subtractive color mixing laws, thus abandoning the use of visual assessment and shade guides entirely. This approach is currently enjoying increasing popularity for its ease of use, reliability as well as for its practically oriented features like its imaging ability or the digital try-in.

Spectrophotometric measurement methods employing computer calculations, based on color science and theories, allow quantitative evaluation which is objective and appears to be more accurate.

Visual shade matching is the most common method, in which a color standard from a commercially available dental shade guide is compared to and matched with the target tooth.