There are some telltale signs of plastic surgery: skin that looks too tight over the face, lips that look unnaturally puffy, expressions that look permanently frozen or surprised. In short, the elements of the face don’t naturally blend together anymore.
In dentistry, one of the ways someone can tell that a tooth has been restored is that the tooth in question is a shade yellower or a shade whiter, and it doesn’t blend well with its neighbors.
In both plastic surgery and dentistry, the best results look like the professionals didn’t get involved at all.
However, if the patient with the slightly off-shade tooth were to return to the chair, he or she may see that the resin actually blends in when under the color-corrected lights of the dental office. That’s because that’s the temperature of lighting the dentist used when holding the shade guide up to the patient’s mouth is about 5500K, but incandescent light is about 3900K, and ambient light is about 3200K. The apparent color of the restored tooth will look different depending on the light source temperature.
With the Rite-Lite2 HI CRI (3 in 1) Shade Matching Light from AdDent, a dentist can preview the selected shade under those three lighting temperatures before doing a restoration to ensure it will continue to match when the patient leaves the office. The Rite-Lite2 HI CRI also has a cross-polarizing filter to eliminate reflections during the matching process and a Color Rendering Index of 90 or higher.
What is Color Rendering Index, or CRI? CRI measures the ability of a light to accurately show colors when compared with how those colors would look in direct sunlight. CRI is measured on a scale of 1 to 100, and lights that are rated a 90 or greater are considered “high CRI,” a designation the Rite-Lite2 HI CRI holds.
The Rite-Lite2 HI CRI can be used not only for ensuring the selected shade is accurate prior to the restoration; it can be used at the end to confirm the work was successful.
Using the Rite-Lite2 will save you money on remakes, give you results you can be proud of and increase patient satisfaction with the finished work. To learn more, visit addent.com.