Smart Chromatic Technology: A Look into the Future of Composite Design

Author
5/7/2019

Dentists and patients alike are drawn to resin composites due to their natural, tooth-like esthetics. However, most composite materials are still limited in terms of their ability to truly match the color of dentition. Composites generally rely on dyes and pigments restricted to a range of VITA shades to emulate human teeth. As a result, achieving an exact match can be time-consuming at best and, at worst, impossible.

Tokuyama Dental America, an award-winning Japanese innovator of dental solutions, aims to revolutionize shade-matching with OMNICHROMA®, its latest universal composite. OMNICHROMA utilizes Tokuyama’s Smart Chromatic Technology, the product of 35 years of research and development. Via spherical fillers, OMNICHROMA employs structural color to match virtually any tooth shade—from A1 to D4 and beyond—with a single composite.

Structural color is the product of light being amplified or weakened by the structure of a material. In turn, the material can express shades that differ from its own color. This mechanism is the same used by animals such as morpho butterflies and peacocks, both of which are known for displaying some of the most brilliant and unique colors seen in nature.

OMNICHROMA represents the first use of structural color in composite dentistry. The composite’s 260nm spherical fillers are the exact size and shape needed to generate red-to-yellow color—the range found in human teeth. As light passes through the fillers, it produces this red-to-yellow spectrum and combines with the reflected color of surrounding dentition to create a perfectly seamless match.

With Smart Chromatic Technology, OMNICHROMA makes dyes and pigments obsolete, eliminating the need for a costly assortment of composites to achieve an ideal shade match. In addition to its esthetic abilities, OMNICHROMA boasts exceptional handling, polishability and strength. Together these properties make OMNICHROMA a true game-changer—a universal composite that likely sets a precedent for design trends to come.

To learn more about OMNICHROMA and request a sample for your practice, visit omnichroma.com/us.