Does gender and experience influence shade matching quality?

Objectives: To evaluate the influence of gender and level of experience on shade matching quality. Methods: A study was simultaneously performed at 15 universities located in 9 countries. A total of 614 color normal participants completed all phases of the experiment. Among them, there were 305 females and 309 males, 319 dental students and 295 dental professionals. A lecture on color matching in dentistry was given to all participants. Initial training was performed using Toothguide Trainer software (TT), while Toothguide Training Box (TTB) was used for both training and testing of participants' shade matching results. The test task was to successively match 15 shade guide tabs with the corresponding shade guide. The shade matching score for each participant was computed as a sum of color differences (∑ Δ Eab* score) between target tabs and selected tabs. Lower scores corresponded to better shade matching results and vice versa. Means and standard deviations were calculated. Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis of the data (α = 0.05). Results: The mean shade matching score (S.D.) for all participants was 41 (21). The score for female and male participants was 38 (20) and 44 (21), respectfully (p < 0.001). The difference in scores between dental students, 42 (20), and dental professionals, 39 (21), was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, females achieved significantly better shade matching results than males, indicating that gender plays an important role in shade matching. The level of experience was not found to be significant factor in shade matching. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd.